Gangster Sohrabuddin, sharp shooter Prajapati’s killing triggered tempest

The acquittal of all 22 accused in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case by a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Mumbai has brought the spotlight back on the life of the gangster, who was in his mid-30s when he was killed in what the Gujarat police claimed was an encounter. After his death, he was branded as a Lashkar-e-Taiba operative, who wanted to kill the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, a member of the Dawood Ibrahim gang and an extortionist operating in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. Some claimed he was a police informer turned rogue.

What is not under dispute is that Sheikh belonged to Jharnia in Madhya Pradesh and was a criminal, who operated across Udaipur, Ahmedabad and Ujjain, primarily extorting money from local businessmen.

What is also not under dispute is that he was picked up by the anti-terror squad of the Gujarat Police on November 23, 2005, from a bus on its way to Sangli in Maharashtra from Hyderabad. Three days later his bullet ridden body was found in Ahmedabad. The only case ever registered against him was an arms smuggling case dating back to 1995.

“In 1995, the Gujarat police raided his home in MP’s Jharia and recovered 25 AK-57 rifles,” said a retired Gujarat police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, given the nature of the case. “That consignment of arms passed through Gujarat. He was convicted and imprisoned for five years in Sabarmati Jail, Ahmedabad,” the officer added.

Between 1995 and 2005, Sheikh’s name cropped up in a firing incident outside Popular Builder’s office in Ahmedabad in 2004. His name was not there in the FIR lodged but it was mentioned by the CBI in the charge sheet filed in the encounter case. There were also claims that Sheikh helped certain police officers in running an extortion racket, an allegation reiterated in the CBI charge sheet.

Rajasthan based criminal Azam Khan, in his testimony in the Mumbai CBI court, alleged that Sheikh told him that he was behind the 2003 killing of former Gujarat home minister Haren Pandya on the instruction of the then director general of police, D G Vanzara, who has denied this.

Kausar Bi: The death of Sheikh’s wife, who was picked up along with him from Andhra Pradesh, and brought to Ahmedabad, remained shrouded in mystery for almost 16 months. The Gujarat government filed a report before the apex court only in April, 2007, stating Kausar Bi was dead and her body had been burnt on November 29, 2005, three days after her husband was killed in an alleged encounter.

As per the the CBI charge sheet, she was burnt in IIol, home village of the then director general of police, D G Vanzara, who was discharged in the case in 2017.

Tulsiram Prajapati:

A close confidante of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and a sharp shooter, he allegedly killed Udaipur’s local gangster Hamid Lala on December 31, 2004, to provide the former dominance in the local extortion racket. It is believed that he helped Gujarat police to track down Sheikh in Andhra Pradesh.

He was the third person, along with Kausar Bi and Sheikh, picked up by the Gujarat police from a bus going to Sangli in Maharashtra from Hyderabad.He was 28 when killed, allegedly by joint team of Rajasthan and Gujarat police in December 27, 2006. Like Sheikh, he was from Madhya Pradesh, where he had some two dozens cases registered against him, and operated across Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat.