Gujarat lifts IPS officer's suspension accused in Tulsiram Prajapati case

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat government revoked the suspension of 2001 batch IPS officer Vipul Agarwal, who is an accused in alleged Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter case, officials said in Ahmedabad today.

“We have revoked the suspension of Vipul Agarwal. We will reinstate him in a post soon. No decision is taken yet about the position to be given to him,” Gujarat Director General of Police (DGP) PC Thakur said.

The decision came after Agarwal was granted bail by the Bombay High Court in October this year.

Agarwal was behind bars ever since he was arrested by the Gujarat CID in 2010 for his alleged involvement an encounter of Tulsiram Prajapati, a close associate of Sohrabuddin Sheikh.

Sheikh was killed in an alleged fake encounter in November 2005 by the Gujarat police. During December 2006, Prajapati was killed in an another alleged fake encounter by a Gujarat police team, headed by former IPS officer DG Vanzara, who is still behind bars.

During 2011, the probe into both killings were handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) by the Supreme Court. Since both the encounters were interlinked, the CBI has clubbed both the cases together.

It was alleged that Prajapati was gunned down in Chapri village of Banaskantha district when he was in police custody. Agarwal was the Superintendent of Police of Banaskantha at the time of the alleged fake encounter.

It was alleged that Prajapati was killed because he witnessed Sheikh’s alleged fake encounter.

The Supreme Court has shifted the Sheikh and Prajapati case to a Mumbai court.

PTI