One more witness hostile in Sohrab case

Mumbai: Yet another witness in the 2005 Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case turned hostile on Monday, taking the total count of witnesses having turned hostile to 45. So far, as many as 63 witnesses have been examined in the case.

Naginbhai Rathod, a teacher, was called in as a witness to court. According to his statement recorded by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Mr Rathod is a teacher by profession and on instruction of his principal, had gone to the police headquarters in March 2010.

According to the statement, the police introduced Mr Rathod to two panch witnesses from Maharashtra and he explained to them in Marathi the statement recorded by the police in Gujarati.

However, when Mr Rathod appeared before the court on Monday, he denied having gone to the police headquarters. He said that some pages were given to him for translation from Gujarati to Marathi but he did not read them to anyone nor did he explain the contents to anyone. Following this, special public prosecutor B.P. Raju requested the judge S.J. Sharma to declare Mr Rathod as a hostile witness.

The judge then declared him hostile. With this, the count of hostile witnesses has risen to 45.