NEW DELHI: Azam Khan, a key witness in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh alleged fake encounter case has told a trial court that former Gujarat IPS officer D G Vanzara gave contract to Shaikh
to kill former Gujarat Home Minister Haren Pandya.
Pandya, a senior BJP leader was murdered in Ahmedabad in 2003.
According to The Indian Express reports, Azam, an Udaipur-based alleged gangster and an associate of Sohrabuddin and Tulsiram Prajapati, deposing as a witness before special CBI Judge SJ Sharma said:
“During discussion with Sohrabuddin, he told me that he, along with Naeem Khan and Shahid Rampuri, got the contract to kill Home Minister Haren Pandya of Gujarat and they killed him. I felt sad and I told Sohrabuddin that they have killed a good person. Sohrabuddin told me that the contract was given to him by Vanzara,” adding that Sohrabuddin had told him “upar se yeh kaam diya tha (the work was given from above).”
Khan further spoke about how in November 2005 he met Prajapati at Udaipur jail and had heard about Sohrabuddin’s death. “Prajapati told me that the Gujarat police killed Sohrabuddin and his wife Kausar Bi,” the witness said.
Khan was brought to the city from Udaipur Central Jail on Saturday under heavy security. The testimony will continue next week.
Shaikh and his wife Kausar Bi were killed in an alleged fake encounter in 2005 by Gujarat police. Later, Tulsiram was also killed in another alleged fake encounter by Rajasthan and Gujarat police.
Vanzara was named accused number 1 in the alleged fake encounter cases. For the two alleged fake encounters, out of the 38 people charged by the CBI, 16 were discharged by the trial court including BJP chief Amit Shah, Vanzara and all senior officers of Gujarat and Rajasthan police.