Bombay HC asks CBI how it protects witnesses

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Monday asked the CBI on what steps it took to protect the witnesses of the Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter case.

The court quizzed the CBI after observing that several witnesses in the Sohrabuddin case had turned hostile.

On Monday, two more witnesses from Gujarat who had acted as panch witness for Sohrabuddin's viscera turned hostile.

They failed to identify deputy SP Parmar or any other policemen before whom they had identified viscera. “What protection are you providing to witnesses. Some of them have turned hostile. Is this the seriousness with which CBI is conducting the trial?” asked Justice Revati Mohite-Dere.

When asked by CBI counsel B.P. Raju both the witnesses replied they do not remember who had brought the six bottles containing viscera after Sohrabuddin's post-mortem. They also stated that they had never met Parmar.

Though there are two police officers with the surname Parmar. But the documents before the court do not have complete names of the concerned officers (Parmar).

The court is hearing an appeal filed by CBI and Sohrabuddin’s brother Rubabuddin’s challenging discharge of few of the accused from the case.

Rubabuddin has challenged the discharge of DIG D.G. Vanzara, Rajasthan IPS officer Dinesh M.N. and Gujarat IPS officer Rajkumar Pandiyan.

The CBI challenged the discharge of police constable Dalpat Singh Rathod and N.K. Amin who was with the Gujarat police.

The prosecution examined three witnesses on Monday of them two were declared hostile.