Killing of Tulsiram Prajapati

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]

Killing of Tulsiram Prajapati
Known for	death in custody

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

• Death of Sohrabuddin Sheikh

References

1. "Prajapati killing: Trial against former Gujarat minister Amit Shah stayed". NDTV.com. 18 October 2012.
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. . 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. . Archived from the original on 2014-06-06. Retrieved 2013-10-04.
11. PTI (Sep 3, 2013). . The Times of India. Archived from the original on September 5, 2013.
12. . 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.