Popular firing case accused Ajmeri denied bail

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat high court has denied anticipatory bail to Kasam Noormohammed Ajmeri, who had allegedly supplied pistol used for firing in the Popular Builders’ office at Pioneer Infrastructure in Navrangpura in 2004.
Ajmeri, 36, had sought anticipatory bail claiming that he had no role in the incident. He expressed fear that if Gujarat police arrest him, he could be killed in a fake encounter like Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati, who were also connected with the incident.
A resident of Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh, Ajmeri has been accused of selling a pistol to Azam Khan in 2004 for Rs 1 lakh. The gun was later given to Sohrabuddin and through his brother Nayamuddin it ultimately reached Tulsiram Prajapati and Sylvester Daniel on December 7, 2004, a day before the firing.
The case became controversial after the CBI, while probing the Sohrabuddin encounter case claimed that the shootout at Popular Builders’ office was stage managed by senior cops in crime branch as a precursor to the encounter.
Two chargesheets were filed in 2006 in this case against 12 people, out of these Sohrabuddin and Tulsiram were killed in fake police encounters. All the accused including Sohrabuddin’s associates and owners of Popular Builders were granted bail. At present, the case is at the stage of framing of charges before a city sessions court, and Ajmeri and Sohrab’s younger brother have been declared are absconders in this case.