An IPS officer was arrested late Monday in connection with the killing of a man in 2006 who was reportedly a witness to the gunning down of Sohrabuddin Sheikh in a fake encounter by Gujarat police.
"IPS officer Vipul Agarwal has been arrested by CID in connection with the Tulsi Prajapati encounter case," CID chief VV Rabari said here.
Agarwal, presently the District Superintendent of Police (DSP) Dahod, was posted as DSP Banaskantha in 2006 when Prajapati's alleged encounter took place.
Prajapati was believed to be a key witness in the fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and the subsequent murder of his wife Kausar Bi at the hands of Gujarat police's Crime Branch in November 2005.
The CID chief said, "Agarwal was present at the scene of the crime when Prajapati's encounter took place. Officials had then claimed that he tried to escape from police custody while being transferred to a different prison."
Prajapati was picked up by police along with Sohrabuddin and his wife from Andhra Pradesh. Sohrabuddin was killed in a joint encounter by Gujarat and Rajasthan police in November 2005, and later his wife was allegedly murdered.
The state CID arrested 14 cops, including three IAS officers D G Vanzara, Rajkumar Pandian and Dinesh M N, in connection with the Sohrabuddin case.
In January 2010, the case was handed over to the CBI by the Supreme Court saying that the Gujarat police were not investigating the case properly.
Following this, CBI arrested fourth IPS officer Abhay Chudasma, last week in connection with the fake encounter case.
The CBI had sought papers of Tulsi Prajapati case from the state police, saying that his encounter was linked with that of Sohrabuddin.
However, the state police had denied handing over the document saying that SC had given only mandate of Sohrabuddin case to CBI and this case was being investigated by state CID.
