MUMBAI: Sohrabuddin’s brother Rubabuddin Shaikh has challenged the order discharging police officers Dinesh MN, former deputy inspector general of Gujarat, DG Vanzara and Pandian in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh "fake encounter" case."Rajasthan IPS officer Dinesh MN was instrumental in changing an escort party before the alleged encounter in 2005 of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati," argued advocate Gautam Tiwari, counsel for Rubabuddin in Bombay high court on Wednesday.The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has questioned the discharge of two other police officers NK Amin and Dalpat Singh.Justice Revati Mohite Dere of the Bombay high court heard Tiwari’s submission against Dinesh’s discharge all afternoon on Wednesday. Tiwari argued how the statements of witnesses were contrary to the trial court order and actually make out a case against him.The counsel said that an investigating officer from Rajasthan in the Hamid Lala murder case had stated that Dinesh had gone to Ahmedabad to arrest Sohrabuddin who was a “notorious criminal accused in the murder case" and he was not part of the team despite being the IO. Tiwari pointed out that Dinesh’s superior officer was unaware of the reason behind his trip to Ahmedabad.A month before alleged encounter there were 40 to 50 people in the police escort. That was reduced to 15 a fortnight before and later reduced to four on the date of alleged escaping of Tulsiram Prajapati before the encounter, Tiwari said.He argued that there are “statements of more than 40 witnesses which show that Dinesh had some role right from the the stage of planning to the stage of encounter killing." He also said that all the other co-accused who had accompanied him to Ahmedabad before and at the time of the alleged encounter were not discharged by the trial court. Their pleas were rejected but Dinesh’s was accepted, he pointed out.Himanshu Rajawat, Shyam Singh Charan and Abdul Rehman all cops from Rajasthan had gone along with Dinesh to Ahmedabad before the encounter.In the Tulsiram Prajapati case there were many witnesses who said that Tulsiram had apprehended threat to his life from cops in Gujarat and Rajasthan. “He had written complaints to a magistrate to express these fears and also to the National Human Rights Commission ," Tiwari submitted.Of the escort party members, Dalpat Singh was discharged, Kartar Singh was not. The CBI challenged Dalpat’s discharge, not Kartar’s. Tiwari will continue his arguments on Thursday where he is likely to argue how prior sanction was not required in Dinesh MN’s case as his actions were beyond the scope of his official duty as a police officer.On bail since May 2014, Dinesh had been promoted by the Rajasthan government to the post of Deputy Inspector General and then Inspector General with effect from May 9 the same year. He had served seven years in jail in connection with the alleged fake encounter killings.The CBI chargesheet had said police officials of Gujarat and Rajasthan had entered into a conspiracy to kill gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh and abduct his wife Kauser Bi in 2005.“There is absolutely no iota of material as when, where and who killed Kausar Bi. There is also no material collected from the spot like sand, ash etc to say that her body was burnt,” the CBI Judge had said while discharging Dinesh MN and Vanzara on August 1, 2017. The CBI’s claim was that her body was burnt after killing.“It is seen from the entire record ... that there is no sufficient evidence to indicate that there was a meeting of minds between accused (Vanzara) and the other accused to abduct and kill (Sheikh, Kausar Bi and Prajapati),” the court had held. “In the absence of evidence of their involvement in any manner in the abduction followed by the killing, I am of the view that role attributed against the accused as reflected does definitely come within the sphere of discharge of their official duty,” the court had said.