Jodhpur (Raj), Apr 21 (PTI) Rejecting the CBI’s closure report in the 2021 killing of Kamlesh Prajapati in an alleged fake encounter, a special court here directed the registration of a case on murder and other charges against the then Superintendent of Police of Pali Kaluram Rawat, the then Barmer SP Anand Sharma and other police officers.
The court also directed the CBI to initiate an investigation to ascertain the role of the then revenue minister Harish Choudhary, his brother Manish Choudhary, the then IG (Jodhpur Range) Navjyoti Gogoi and other police personnel in the case and submit a report in the court in two months.
Magistrate Anubhav Tiwari gave these directions on April 16 while allowing a petition by Jasoda, wife of Kamlesh Prajapati, against the CBI’s closure report. She had alleged that he was killed in a fake encounter at the behest of the then revenue minister Harish Choudhary.
“A murder committed by the police by shooting someone without provocation, enmity, or personal revenge on the basis of a conspiracy hatched by the accused cannot be considered an act carried out in the discharge of official duty, especially when the evidence of such murder is tampered with and the investigation into such a murder is misleading,” the court said in its order.
The police had claimed that Prajapati was killed in an encounter in Barmer on April 22, 2021. The incident sparked protests as his kin and community members alleged that it was a fake encounter.
The investigation into the case was started by the local police. It was later handed over to the CID-CB and finally to the CBI.
The CBI, in its closure report submitted on May 31, 2021, said that it was difficult to substantiate that it was a fake encounter.
But while hearing the wife’s petition, the CBI court observed that all the claims submitted by the police in support of the encounter were fabricated. PTI COR RT RT
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