Prajapati encounter: Javadekar admits his presence in meeting

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Prakash Javadekar has apparently admitted his presence at a meeting shown in a sting operation in connection with the Tulsi Prajapati encounter case.

Sources in the Central Bureau of Investigation claimed Javadekar fully cooperated during his questioning at agency headquarters on September 27 and said he was present in the meeting which was caught on hidden camera by an independent journalist.

The agency has also questioned party MP Bhupendra Yadav and summoned BJP general secretary Ramlal who also figured in the sting operation relating to the encounter case.

The three leaders had refuted the charge of trying to subvert the legal process and maintained they are innocent.

In the sting operation, the leaders are purportedly shown discussing how Prajapati's mother Narmadabai can be convinced to change her 'vakalatnama' (authorisation letter to the lawyer).

She has filed a case alleging her son was killed in a fake encounter in which BJP general secretary Amit Shah is an accused.

However, BJP has claimed there is nothing "incriminating" against the three leaders in the sting operation.

Prajapati, who was allegedly a witness to Sohrabuddin Sheikh's murder, was killed on December 2006 -- a year after Sheikh was shot dead in an alleged fake encounter in Gujarat.

The journalist, who conducted the sting operation, had alleged that senior BJP leaders managed to get undated blank 'vakalatnamas' from Narmadabai to allegedly subvert the judicial proceedings.