Dara case: CBI lists five witnesses

JAIPUR: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday submitted a list of five prosecution witnesses to be produced in court for recording their statements on September 10 and 11. The list included IAS officer Rohit Kumar Singh who had prepared a report on the encounter in which he had concluded that it had been staged by a team of state's special operations group (SOG).
Three witnesses - Kusumlata Meena then SI at Mansarovar police station, Addl SP Omprakash Sharma and head constable Kaluram - will appear in court to record their statements on September 10, while Rohit Kumar Singh and then assistant secretary home department M R Chauhan will appear on September 11.
The lawyer for some of the accused policemen A K Jain said that instead of special public prosecutor appointed for the case, a CBI officer submitted the list of witnesses which was against the law.
"The public prosecutor should have appeared in the court to submit the list. Moreover, there is a long list of witnesses and the CBI has only submitted the list of five. At this pace, recording statement of all witnesses will take a long time," said Jain.
Dara Singh, who carried a reward of Rs 25,000 on his head, was killed during an encounter with police at Mansarovar in Jaipur. His widow Sushila approached the police and filed a complaint but no FIR was registered. It was only after Supreme Court's intervention the investigation was given to CBI and an FIR was registered in April, 2010.
The CBI had earlier arrested nine policemen, including Nisar Khan, Naresh Sharma, Satyanarayan Gaudara Munshil and Surendra Singh Chaudhary. Four others, including RAS officer Arsad Ali, are still absconding.
The trial began on July 11. The CBI has slapped charges of murder, criminal conspiracy and kidnapping, among others, on the accused.