Investigations by the CBI into the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case have revealed that one of the IPS officers of Gujarat — Abhay Chudasama, who was also associated with the state police’ probe into the alleged fake encounter — threatened the family members of the victim to withdraw a petition filed in the Supreme Court for a probe. The agency found out that the officer was doing this at the behest of Amit Shah, Gujarat’s former minister of state (Home).
Sources said that Chudasama used to tell the family members of Sohrabuddin, who hailed from Madhya Pradesh, that “the government of the same political party was in power in that state and he (Shah) could get them eliminated in Madhya Pradesh itself.”
“The investigation has also revealed that Chudasama, at the behest of Shah, tried to induce family members of Sohrabuddin into withdrawing the petition from the Supreme Court by offering them a sum of Rs 50 lakhs. When they rejected the offer, the officer began threatening them with dire consequences,” sources said.
This aspect has also been mentioned by the in its chargesheet filed before a court in Ahmedabad, sources added. Sources said, the CBI probe also revealed that officials like Chudasama and D.G. Vanzara, used to issue similar threats to influence witnesses on behalf of Shah to conceal the truth from CBI about the fake encounter. Sources added that Tulsiram Prajapati was contacted by the accused official Chudasama and brought to Ahmedabad, where he was produced before another accused IPS official Vanzara in the early November, 2005.