Click to play videoUdaipur/Ahmedabad: Police call Sohrabuddin Sheikh a terrorist and claim he died in an encounter on November 26, 2005. The truth is this: police of three states colluded in murdering him and later two more persons were killed for a cover-up.
Here is a reconstruction of the events leading to Sohrabuddin’s death. 0500 hours IST, November 26: A police team stood waiting between the Vishal Toll barrier and Narol Circle outside Ahmedabad city on the highway to Mumbai.
Twenty minutes later, the headlight of a motorbike alerted them. As the bike inched closer, a police inspector recognised Sohrabuddin and leapt to stop him. Sohrabuddin slipped and fired.
The police team shot back and Sohrabuddin died. That is the version Gujarat Police’s Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) has given of the event. But how could the inspector recognise Sohrabuddin in the pitch dark of a November morning?
The Gujarat Police’s Crime Investigation Department (CID) has clearly said that IPS officer D G Vanzara, who was ATS chief then, staged the encounter. The CID traced the movements of Sohrabuddin, his wife Kauser Bi and a third person and found that on November 23 they were travelling on a bus from Hyderabad to Sangli on tickets 29, 30 and 31.
A Gujarat ATS team, assisted by the Andhra Police, halted bus 5051 near Tandola village on the Hyderabad-Sangli road and dragged out the three at 0100 hours IST on Novermber 23.
Bus driver Mohammed Misbahuddin told CNN-IBN what happened “A car stopped my bus in a jungle and a policeman came out and asked me to switch off the lights,” said Misbahuddin in Hyderabad.
Three days later and thousands of kilometres away Sohrabuddin was killed.
Cut to Ahmedabad
The ‘Disha’ bungalow outside Ahmedabad is a safe house of the Gujarat ATS. People claim that on the night of Novemeber 25, 2005 they saw a man whose face was covered and a burqa-clad woman being brought to the bungalow.
According to the statement of Constable Ajay Parmar, who is in the custody of the Gujarat CID, he was ordered to bring a Hero Honda motorcycle to Narol Circle at 0400 hours IST on November 26.
Parmar drove the motorcycle and dropped it at Narol Circle. Sohrabbuddin was pulled out of the car and thrown next to the bike. Inspector Abdul Rehman allegedly fired two rounds from his service pistol at Sohrabbuddin. Rehman’s reward: promise of a promotion.
Kauser Bi’s murder
Sohrabuddin was murdered in cold blood but this had to be covered up. To do that the police allegedly committed two other murders. When the police picked up Sohrabuddin from the bus, Kauser Bi followed them.
Witnesses says the police asked Kauser to go back to the bus but she refused. "It was Kauser Bi’s steadfast resolve not to leave her husband. She feared for his safety and this eventually led to her becoming a victim of the encounter cops," said Shaik Ahmed Ali, who was in the bus.
On November 27, a day after Sohrabbuddin was killed, Kauser was reportedly brought to a bungalow in Koba in Gandhinagar district. She became hysterical when she learnt that her husband had been killed.
The original plan did not include her murder but when she threatened to expose her husband’s murder a doctor poisoned her. A timber dealer allegedly supplied the firewood to cremate Kauser outside Ahmedabad.
Shri Jadeja, an ATS driver, took Kauser Bi’s body and burnt it in hills near Vanzara's Ilol village in Sabarkantha district. The police were not over though—a third murder was to be committed.
The third victim
Their next victim was Tulsiram Prajapati, a criminal imprisoned in an Udaipur jail. Tulsiram became Sohrabbuddin’s friend and sharpshooter after meeting him in a jail.
In an alleged confession to the MP Police in 2005, Tulsiram said: "Sohrabuddin used to introduce me as a man who could look to the left and shoot to the right and hit a man straight in the head. He use to call me the international shooter."
Sohrabuddin allegedly used Tulsiram’s skill in the daylight murder of gangster Hamid Lala in Udaipur on December 31, 2004. Sohrabuddin allegedly got Lala killed to scare marble traders in Rajasthan but he would eventually pay for it with his life.
The Gujarat ATS picked up Tulsiram on November 23, 2005 and hid this from Bhilwara police, which was keeping track of him.
Tulsiram was taken to identify Sohrabbuddin and Kauser, who were being held by the ATS in Ahmedabad. He was one of the last people to see the couple alive on November 24, 2005.
Tulsiram’s lawyer, Salim Khan, says his client was scared for his life and knew that Sohrabbuddin was murdered in a fake encounter. Vanzara did not want Tulsiram to talk, so he was arrested for Hamid Lala's murder and put in Udaipur jail.
From jail, Tulsiram wrote to court: "The police say they will kill me and spread the story that I escaped from police custody. They will suspend a few constables to prove their case."
(“MP police aur anya pradesho ki police ne mujhe kaha tha ki tujhe ko maar denge aur aisi afwa urda denge ki tulsiram police custody mein faraar ho gayaaur usme chaar paanch javaano ko suspend bhi kar denge. )
In December 2006, Tulsiram’s fears came true. According to a report registered at the Railway Police Station in Ahmedabad, Prajapati escaped from police custody at Himmatnagar station on December 27 while being escorted back to Udairpur after a court hearing.
A day later he was located at Ambaji on the Rajasthan border and shot dead in an encounter by Vanzara’s team. Strangely, just 10 days earlier, the Gujarat CID had listed Tulsiram as a witness to prove their claim that Sohrabuddin was killed in a fake encounter.
The CID believes that Tulsiram was taken to the Rajasthan border and killed in a fake encounter.
Vanjara and his team had wiped the trail clean. To hide one murder, two others were done.
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