3 more witnesses turn hostile in Tulsiram case

Mumbai: Three more witnesses, including one who had allegedly pointed out the house from where Tulsiram Prajapati was picked up before his arrest, turned hostile Friday. Two others were panch witnesses related to the identification of his body. With this the total number of witnesses examined so far has reached 135 and out of them 83 have turned hostile.

Deepak Agarwal told the court that deputy superintendent of police Sudhir Joshi was his brother Pankaj’s friend and had asked him to find a house near Bilwara where Prajapati was hiding. Mr Agarwal told special judge S. J. Sharma that on December 29, 2005 he had accompanied two police vehicles to the spot and shown them one Jha’s  house. According to the witness, the police picked up Tulsiram Prajapati from the said house.

However, according to the CBI, this incident occurred on December 26, 2005, which is contradictory to the date mentioned by Agarwal, and on public prosecutor B. P. Raju's request the court declared Mr Agarwal hostile.

Two other witnesses Go-vindbhai and Mohanlal Vanzara were panch witnesses connected to the identification of his body. Gujarat IPS officer Rajkumar Pandian, who was discharged by the trial court, on Friday  urged the Bombay high court to consider as “evidence” the recent deposition of prosecution witnesses.