Sohrab case: 2 witnesses turn hostile

Mumbai: Two more witnesses in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case turned hostile on Friday, taking the total number of such witnesses to 52.

The prosecution witnesses who appeared before the court — Rafiq alias Mohammed Hafiz and Firoz Khan alias Raju — are co-accused in the case involving the murder of gangster Hamid Lala in Udaipur, Rajasthan. The duo told the court that their childhood friend Azam Khan had introduced them to Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati.

In their earlier statement, they had told the police that the officers of Gujarat and Rajasthan police allegedly threatened Prajapati on different occasions and that they knew this because they were lodged in the same jail as him.

On Friday however, while answering the questions asked by special public prosecutor B.P. Raju, both witnesses did a volte-face and said that they had never met Sheikh.

They also denied having any knowledge about Prajapati being put under pressure by the police. They said that though they were lodged in the same prison, they were kept in different barracks and hence, did not interact with Prajapati. The witnesses said that they never gave any statement to the CBI. According to them, the CBI had called them for questioning but their statements were never recorded by the agency.