Tulsi Prajapati encounter: Danta court says it has jurisdiction

A local court in Danta on Tuesday ruled that it has the jurisdiction to take cognisance of the charge sheet filed by the CBI in the Tulsi Prajapati fake encounter case. Former Gujarat minister of state for home Amit Shah and 19 others are named as accused in the CBI chargesheet.

Judicial Magistrate (First Class) Geeta Ahir rejected the petitions that had objected to the filing of chargesheet in the Danta court instead of special CBI court in Ahmedabad where the agency had filed the FIR of the case on April 29, 2011. 

The petitions questioning the Danta court’s jurisdiction over the CBI’s chargesheet were filed by retired IPS officers OP Mathur, PC Pande, suspended senior IPS officer Rajkumar Pandian and DySP RK Patel, an ex-investigator of the case.

The court also refused to grant a stay on its order as requested by the accused to allow them to challenge it in higher court. The court, however, allowed the lawyers of the accused to inspect the CBI chargesheet in court. Copies of the chargesheet will be given to the accused on Thursday.

Sources said that the CBI chargesheet is 4000 pages long and the agency has named 342 witnesses in the case.

After the Judicial Magistrate refused to grant a stay on its order, new petitions were filed on behalf of Amit Shah, OP Mathur, PC Pande and senior IPS officer Geetha Johri challenging the legality of the chargesheet. The petitioners said that the court cannot  take action against the accused in the case without prior sanction of the Gujarat government. The court has fixed the hearing on these applications on September 27.

Tulsi Prajapati was killed in a fake encounter allegedly by the Gujarat police at Chhapri near Danta on December 28, 2006. Shah, a close aide of chief minister Narendra Modi and is among the 20 accused named by CBI in its chargesheet. Eighteen of the 20 accused, including Amit Shah, have been charged with the offences of murder, conspiracy, and destruction of evidence among other sections of the IPC.

Sources said that OP Mathur and RK Patel have been charged only for criminal conspiracy, destruction of evidence and dereliction of duty, but not for murder.