Tulsi Prajapati case: ‘As I traced Sohrab, I too will be killed’

Tulsi Prajapati’s ‘crime’ was that he knew too much for his own good. Finally the dangers associated with too much privy information, especially the about the killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh in a staged encounter, and also being a witness to the abduction of Sohrab and his wife Kauserbi, ultimately took its toll in his murder on December 28, 2006.

CBI mentions Prajapati’s meetings with different people with whom he had mentioned the same thing again and again. Tulsiram, the man who facilitated DG Vanzara and other officers to locate Sohrabuddin Sheikh, met Rubabuddin Sheikh, the complainant of Sohrab fake encounter case in Supreme Court, in September (or October) 2006, where the motive of his (Tulsi’s) murder becomes clear.

According to the charge sheet, Prajapati handed over two blank papers with his signature to Rubabuddin, requesting him to write a letter to the Supreme Court and Rajasthan High Court stating the truth about the murder of Sohrabuddin. He also asked him to pray to the two courts to intervene and save his life.

Prajapati apologized and confessed to Rubabuddin that he felt guilty for what had happened to Sohrab and Kauserbi. An emotionally distraught Tulsi also told him that he was under constant apprehension of being murdered by the police. CBI had mentioned that Prajapati was in an ‘emotional guilt-ridden state’ during this meeting.

In the second week of December 2005, when Kundan, nephew of Tulsi had met him in Udaipur’s district court, Tulsi confessed to him that he was used by the Gujarat police to locate Sohrabuddin and said that his days were numbered as the police would also murder him. In the charge sheet, CBI mentions that there were threats issued to Prajapati, as he was the one who knew about Sohrab and Kauserbi’s abduction.