Killing of Tulsiram Prajapati

Last updated
Killing of Tulsiram Prajapati
Known fordeath in custody

Tulsiram Prajapati was a man, who was killed while in custody at 5 am on 26 December 2005. [1] The case is widely believed [2] to have been an encounter killing by the Gujarat Police. DIG D.G. Vanzara has been in jail for seven years, on charges of having organised this encounter, among others. [3]

Contents

On 8 April 2011, the Supreme Court of India directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to take up the investigation. [2]

Arrests

The case came into prominence in 2012, when the CBI, in its chargesheet, listed Gujarat home minister and leading BJP politician Amit Shah as the "kingpin and prime accused" [4] in the case. Amit Shah was arrested in October 2012. Earlier, an unprecedented total of 32 police officers Himanshu Singh Rajawat, Shyamsingh Charan, Ashish Pandya , Yudhvir Singh, Kartar Singh, Narayansingh Chauhan, Jethasingh Solanki, Kanjibhai Kutchi, Vinodkumar Limbachiya Kiransingh Chauhan and Karansingh Sisodiya, Vijaykumar Rathod, [5] including six IPS officers including D. G. Vanjara and Rajkumar Pandian of Gujarat cadre and Dinesh M.N. of Rajasthan cadre, had been arrested for the series of "encounter deaths". [6] [7]

According to the CBI, Prajapati was a witness to the encounter death of Sohrabuddin Sheikh in 2005, and this was why he had to be eliminated. [8]

The encounter killing took place in Banaskantha district. Vanzara, known to be close to Amit Shah and Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of Gujarat at the time, had been transferred there as DIG Border range just 13 days earlier. Shah claimed that the transfer was an administrative move, not connected to the encounter. [9]

Possible involvement in Haren Pandya assassination

In September 2013, after six years in prison, Vanzara who called Modi "my God", became disgruntled, [10] [11] and apparently claimed a connection between the Tulsiram Prajapati and the unsolved murder of ex-BJP minister Haren Pandya, [12] who was at one time a minister under Narendra Modi. Pandya was shot dead while out on a morning walk in March 2003, a year after his fallout with Modi. In 2003, it was Vanzara who had originally investigated the Pandya murder. [13] Similar claims have also been made by the DNA newspaper, [14] which has suggested that Sheikh was eliminated because of his links to the political murder of Pandya.

CBI reconstruction of the case

The CBI and a team of forensic science experts reconstructed the alleged fake encounter of Tulsi Prajapati by Gujarat police in 2006 at Chhapri village in the district on July 8, 2011. The team headed by Rajendra Singh of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), and T D Dogra of Forensic Medicine Department at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), began the reconstruction early morning. The forensic experts and CBI were assisted by state CID officials. CID was investigating the case before the Supreme Court transferred it to the central agency. The experts obtained crucial data such as the distance between the police vehicle and the car in which Prajapati was travelling, location of Prajapati’s body after the encounter as per the CID’s FIR, how police officers fired at Prajapati and the distance from which they fired. [15]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2002 Gujarat riots</span> Sectarian violence in the Indian state


The 2002 Gujarat riots, also known as the 2002 Gujarat violence or the Gujarat pogrom, was a three-day period of inter-communal violence in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The burning of a train in Godhra on 27 February 2002, which caused the deaths of 58 Hindu pilgrims and karsevaks returning from Ayodhya, is cited as having instigated the violence. Following the initial riot incidents, there were further outbreaks of violence in Ahmedabad for three months; statewide, there were further outbreaks of violence against the minority Muslim population of Gujarat for the next year.

The Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case is a criminal case in the Gujarat state after the death of Sohrabuddin Anwarhussain Sheikh on November 26, 2005. A special CBI court acquitted all the 22 accused in the case in the alleged encounter killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife.

Haren Pandya was the Home Minister of Gujarat in India. He was allegedly murdered in 2003 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, when he was sitting in his car, after a morning walk in the Law Garden area in Ahmedabad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gulbarg Society massacre</span> Massacre of a Muslim neighbourhood in Ahmedabad during the 2002 Gujarat Riots

The Gulbarg Society massacre took place on 28 February 2002, during the 2002 Gujarat riots, when a crowd started stone pelting the Gulbarg Society, a Muslim neighbourhood in the eastern part of Chamanpura, Ahmedabad in the Indian state of Gujarat. Most of the houses were burnt, and at least 35 victims, including a former Congress Member of Parliament, Ehsan Jafri, were burnt alive, while 31 others went missing after the incident, later presumed dead, bringing the total deaths to 69.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amit Shah</span> Home Minister of India (born 1964)

Amitbhai Anilchandra Shah is an Indian politician who is currently serving as the 32nd Minister of Home Affairs since May 2019 and the first Minister of Co-operation since July 2021. He is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Gandhinagar. He served as the 10th President of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from 2014 to 2020. He has also served as chairman of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) since 2014. He had been elected as a member of the upper house of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, from Gujarat from 2017 to 2019.

Sanjiv Bhatt is a former Indian Police Service officer of the Gujarat-cadre. He is known for his role in filing an affidavit in the Supreme Court of India against the then Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, concerning Modi's alleged role in the 2002 Gujarat riots. He claimed to have attended a meeting, during which Modi allegedly asked top police officials to let Hindus vent their anger against the Muslims. However, the Special Investigation Team appointed by the Supreme Court of India concluded that Bhatt did not attend any such meeting, and dismissed his allegations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tirath Das Dogra</span> Indian forensic pathologist

Tirath Das Dogra is an Indian forensic pathologist. He was the pro-chancellor and vice-chancellor of SGT University, Budhera Gurgaon Haryana (2013–2017).

The Truth: Gujarat 2002 was an investigative report on the 2002 Gujarat riots published by India's Tehelka news magazine in its 7 November 2007 issue. The video footage was screened by the news channel Aaj Tak. The report, based on a six-month-long investigation and involving video sting operations, stated that the violence was made possible by the support of the state police and the then Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi for the perpetrators. The report and the reactions to it were widely covered in Indian and international media. The recordings were authenticated by India's Central Bureau of Investigation on 10 May 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ishrat Jahan encounter killing</span> Extra-judicial killing by police in Gujarat, India

On 15 June 2004, officers of the Ahmedabad Police Crime Branch and members of the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau (SIB) of Ahmedabad shot and killed four people to death. Those killed in the incident were Ishrat Jahan Raza, a 19-year-old woman from Mumbra, Maharashtra, and three men – Javed Ghulam Sheikh, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar. The Indian Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) made allegations about the entire operation being an instance of "encounter killing". The state agencies and police claimed that Ishrat Jahan and her associates were Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives involved in a plot to assassinate the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi.

Dahyaji Gobarji Vanzara, popularly known as D. G. Vanzara, is the former Inspector-General of Police (IG) from Gujarat, India. He was in judicial custody from 2007 until his bail in 2015 on charges of having conducted a series of extrajudicial killings, while heading the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS). He was acquitted in Sohrabuddin case in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mukul Sinha</span> Indian human rights activist (1951 – 2014)

Mukul Sinha was an Indian human rights activist and a lawyer at the Gujarat High Court in Ahemdabad. He was an active trade union leader and a trained physicist. He legally represented the families of the individuals who were killed in Gujarat following the 2002 riots and in Manipur, in which he secured convictions of the politicians and police officers involved. Along with his wife Nirjhari Sinha, he founded and served as the president of Jan Sangharsh Manch, an independent civil rights organization with the aim of addressing issues of labour and workers rights. He was also a vocal critic of erstwhile Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rana Ayyub</span> Indian journalist and writer (born 1984)

Rana Ayyub is an Indian journalist and opinion columnist with The Washington Post. She is author of the investigative book Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover Up.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">G. C. Murmu</span> 14th Comptroller and Auditor General of India

Girish Chandra Murmu is the 14th Comptroller and Auditor General of India and the external auditor of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. He is also the chairman of the United Nations Panel of External Auditors and the Asian Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions. He is currently the external auditor of the WHO (2020-2023), succeeding the Auditor General of the Philippines. He was the Inaugural Lieutenant Governor of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir till 6 August 2020. He is a retired 1985 batch IAS officer of Gujarat cadre and was principal secretary to Narendra Modi during his tenure as the Chief Minister of Gujarat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vipul Aggarwal</span> Indian police officer

Dr. Vipul Aggarwal is a 2001 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer from the Gujarat cadre. He has been appointed as the Principal Commissioner of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) in March 2024. Before this new role, he served as the Joint Secretary in the Department of Health & Family Welfare. Prior to this, he also served as the Deputy CEO of the National Health Authority, a government agency responsible for implementing healthcare schemes in India, from February 2020 to August 2022. During his tenure, he played a pivotal role in the policy formulation and implementation of the world's largest health assurance scheme, Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, which provided coverage to an estimated 540 million Indian citizens.

<i>Gujarat Files</i> 2016 journalistic book by Rana Ayyub

Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover Up is a journalistic book about the 2002 Gujarat riots authored and self-published by Rana Ayyub. The book is dedicated to Shahid Azmi along with advocate and activist Mukul Sinha. The foreword of the book is authored by Justice B. N. Srikrishna.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yogesh Chander Modi</span> Indian government executive

Yogesh Chander Modi is the former Director-General/Chief of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) of India. A retired 1984 batch officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre, Y.C. Modi has over 33 years of experience in the Indian Police Service (IPS). He served as Director-General of the NIA from October 30, 2017 and hold this position till his superannuation on May 31, 2021. The Director-General is highest ranking agency executive in the NIA appointed by central/federal government of India, and Y.C. Modi is the 4th person to hold this post after Radha Vinod Raju, SC Sinha and Sharad Kumar.

Rajnish Rai was a Deputy inspector general of police for the Indian Police Service. He began service after graduating with the 1992 cadre. In 2019 he joined the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad as an assistant professor.

Rajkumar Pandian is an Indian Police Service officer. He came to attention over claims in the death of Sohrabuddin Sheikh. From 2016 he was Inspector-general of police in Junagadh, even while the Sohrabuddin case was in courts. In 2018 the Bombay High Court upheld his discharge from this case.

Ashish Pandya is a Dy.SP in the Indian Police Service, in the state of Gujarat. He came to prominence in the media as the leader of the police force accused of a encounter in the Tulsiram Prajapati killing.

Sylvester Daniel is a person known for having a criminal history and being a key witness in the cases for the death of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati killing.

References

  1. ↑ "Prajapati killing: Trial against former Gujarat minister Amit Shah stayed". NDTV.com. 18 October 2012.
  2. 1 2 Venkatesan, J. (25 January 2012). "Supreme Court orders probe into all fake encounters in Gujarat". The Hindu– via www.thehindu.com.
  3. ↑ "Gujarat IPS officer Vanzara quits, says his 'god' Modi shielding Amit Shah". CNN-IBN. Sep 3, 2013.
  4. ↑ "Tulsiram Prajapati encounter: CBI names Amit Shah as kingpin". Indian Express. Sep 18, 2012.
  5. ↑ "Sohrabuddin encounter case: List of all 22 accused acquitted by Delhi HC". Business Standard India. Press Trust of India. 2018-12-21. Retrieved 2022-05-05.
  6. ↑ "Excerpts from Vanzara's letter: Modi was my god - Indian Express". 4 September 2013.
  7. ↑ Langa, Mahesh; Singh, Vijaita (2018-12-20). "Gujarat police officer who probed Sohrabuddin Sheik encounter case suspended". The Hindu. ISSN   0971-751X . Retrieved 2022-05-05.
  8. ↑ "Tehelka - The People's Paper". www.tehelka.com. Archived from the original on 2010-02-02.
  9. ↑ Vinay Kumar (January 10, 2012). "CBI to question Amit Shah again in Prajapati case". The Hindu.
  10. ↑ "Ahmedabad Mirror". Archived from the original on 2014-06-06. Retrieved 2013-10-04.
  11. ↑ PTI (Sep 3, 2013). "DG Vanzara on Narendra Modi: My 'god' has betrayed me". The Times of India . Archived from the original on September 5, 2013.
  12. ↑ "DG Vanzara sings about Haren Pandya murder, says it was political conspiracy: CBI". The Times of India . September 21, 2013. Archived from the original on September 24, 2013. Retrieved 2013-09-30.
  13. ↑ Vinod K Jose (March 2012). "The Emperor Uncrowned : The rise of Narendra Modi". Caravan magazine. Retrieved 2013-09-30.
  14. ↑ "Was it Tulsiram Prajapati who killed Haren Pandya?". DNA (newspaper). August 30, 2011. Retrieved 2013-09-30.
  15. ↑ "CBI reconstructs Tulsi Prajapati fake encounter". The Indian Express. 9 July 2011. Retrieved 21 April 2016.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.