Ahmedabad, Jul 30 (PTI)

An IPS officer is among seven policemen who were charged with criminal conspiracy, murder and kidnapping today in the encounter killing case involving Tulsiram Prajapati, a key witness in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter.

Vipul Agarwal, who was the Superintendent of Police of Banaskantha district when the encounter took place in 2006, was named in the 1,000-page chargesheet filed by Gujarat CID in a court in Banaskantha, about 160 km from here.

All the seven policemen who have since been arrested have been booked for criminal conspiracy, kidnapping and murder, a CID official said.

Prajapati, a key witness in the 2005 fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and alleged murder of his wife Kausar bi, was killed in an encounter in Chapri village near Ambaji in Banaskantha in December 2006.

The chargesheet also includes statements of 137 witnesses.

In May this year, the agency had arrested Agarwal, who was posted as Dahod SP from Ahmedabad, constables Jathubha Solanki from Patan and Vinod Limbachiya from Palanpur.

Three other constables -- Karansinh Sisodia, Kanji Kutchi and Kiransinh Chauhan -- were also arrested subsequently from Siddhpur in Patan.

A police inspector Ashish Pandya, who had allegedly shot Prajapati, was later arrested by the CID.

Pandya was a sub-inspector at the time of encounter and was promoted to the rank of inspector in April and transfered to Rajkot Anti Corruption Bureau.

For interrogation, the CID had got transfer warrant of the two suspended IPS officers, D G Vanzara and Dinesh M N, who were lodged in the Sabarmati central jail here in connection with the Soharabudddin Sheikh fake encounter case.

At the time of Prajapati's encounter in November 2006 Vanzara was Border Range IG Gujarat, and Dinesh was the SP Udaipur, Rajasthan.

While they were in custody, CID had sought permission from Danta court for narco test on the two, saying they were not co-operating with the investigation.