In a further setback to the Gujarat government in Shorabuddin fake encounter case, the Supreme Court on Friday ordered CBI probe into the encounter of his close associate Tulsiram Prajapati to ensure combined investigation even as former state home minister Amit Shah is one of the accused along with several senior police officers.
Virtually accepting the CBI arguments that both the encounters were closely linked, a bench of Justices P. Sathasivam and B.S. Chauhan directed the Gujarat police to hand over the records of the case to the agency within two weeks while setting a deadline of six months for completing the investigation.
“The CBI shall investigate all aspects of the case relating to the killing of Tulsiram Prajapati and file a report to the concerned court/special court having jurisdiction within period of six months from the date of taking over of the investigation,” the bench said. The court directed the police authorities of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh to fully cooperate with the CBI in probing the case and bring it to logical end.
But the court made it clear that any observation made by the bench in its order were for limited purposes of drawing the conclusion why the case should be handed over to the CBI and would not be “construed as expression of opinion on the merits of the case.”
The order came on the petition of Prajapati’s mother Narmada Bai, seeking to tag the investigation into her son’s encounter case with that of Sohrabuddin, in which the CBI already has filed chargesheet, including that against Shah and several senior officers of Gujarat and Rajasthan.
Regarding Narmada Bai’s claim for compensation from the Gujarat government, the top court directed her to file an application before the special court to this effect.