India
The witness in the allegedly 'fake' Sohrabuddin encounter case told the court, 'During that time, Sohrabuddin told me he had got money from DG Vanzara to kill Gujarat's home minister Haren Pandya and he completed the job. I then told him that what he did was wrong and he had killed a good person'
Mumbai: Former Gujarat IPS officer DG Vanzara allegedly gave a contract to Sohrabuddin Sheikh to kill ex-state home minister Haren Pandya, a witness told a trial court in Mumbai on Saturday.
The witness in the allegedly 'fake' Sohrabuddin encounter case told the court, "During that time, Sohrabuddin told me he had got money from DG Vanzara to kill Gujarat's home minister Haren Pandya and he completed the job. I then told him that what he did was wrong and he had killed a good person."
The witness's name was not disclosed, according to a PTI report on Saturday. He said that he had met Sheikh in 2002 and became good friends with him and his wife Kausar Bi and his associate Tulsi Prajapati.
Pandya was shot dead in his car in Ahmedabad on March 26, 2003.
The witness also said that in 2005 he was arrested by the Rajasthan Police and was lodged at Udaipur jail where he met Prajapati.
"Prajapati told me that the Gujarat Police killed Sohrabuddin and his wife Kausar Bi," the witness said, deposing before special CBI judge SJ Sharma. The testimony will continue next week.
In an alleged fake encounter by the Gujarat Police in 2005, Sheikh and his wife were killed. Prajapati was later killed in another alleged fake encounter by the Gujarat and Rajasthan Police.
With inputs from PTI
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