In a big relief to BJP president Amit Shah, a special CBI court on Tuesday discharged him in the 2005 Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case. The party and its top leaders and Ministers reacted by saying that the court ruling has “vindicated” their stand that the Congress had “misused investigating agencies to trap its political opponents”. But questioning the CBI’s role in the matter, the Congress described the verdict as “strange and worrisome” and alleged that the “chained, caged and totally immobilised” probe agency was under “Government pressure.”
Earlier, in a brief order pronounced in the Mumbai court, Special CBI Judge MB Gosavi said: “I am of the opinion that the inference drawn by CBI is not accepted in totality and he (Shah) cannot be charged as an accused.” Shah’s defence counsel said there was no direct evidence against him whatsoever.
The CBI had charged Shah, the then Minister of State for Home in Gujarat, as an accused in the killing of gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati, who was said to have been an eyewitness to the encounter.
The CBI had charged Shah and 37 others, including several police officers, in the two cases of alleged fake encounters in which gangster Sohrabuddin, who was said to have links to Pakistan-based terror group lashkar-e-Tayyeba, and his wife Kauser Bi, were reportedly abducted by Gujarat’s anti-terrorism squad and killed near Gandhinagar in November 2005.
CBI said it will take a decision on whether to appeal against the Mumbai Special Court’s order discharging the BJP chief from the case after studying it. When asked whether the agency will file an appeal, CBI spokesperson said here, “We will study the order once we receive it and thereafter take an appropriate view.”
Reacting to the court judgement, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who also happens to be a legal luminary, said, “The charges were filed against Amit Shah at the behest of the then political Government. There was legally no admissible evidence against him.” Jaitley said, “Amit Shah’s application for discharge was opposed both by the CBI and Sohrabuddin’s brother. The court heard both their lawyers.” The charge was without any basis. The fact that the CBI allowed itself to be misused is a cause for concern.
“Since I had analysed the alleged evidence, both during investigation and after the filing of the charge sheet, I was amongst the few voices which had consistently maintained in the past three years that the prosecution of Amit Shah was a case of ‘No Evidence’. Without analysing the evidence in detail, the media allowed itself to report as was briefed by CBI. Even a vital noting on the CBI file that the implication of Amit Shah was necessary so that then Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi could be implicated, was no news for them,” he said.
Jaitley said he was relieved at the fact that the country has an independent judicial system “which has vindicated Amit Shah.” In his reaction Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted “the court’s verdict vindicates our stand”.
On behalf of the BJP, BJP national secretary Srikant Sharma said discharge of Shah vindicates party’s stand that the Congress had “misused investigating agencies to trap political opponents”. Sharma said “false cases were foisted on Shah to damage his image” and demanded an apology from Congress president Sonia Gandhi for her party’s “sinful crime”.
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said, “There are many questions to answer, serious questions.... And most importantly there was statement under (Section) 164 (CrPC) before the magistrate. None of this was projected by the CBI counsel during the 15-minute submission before the Mumbai court.”
“There are serious questions for the CBI to answer. There are serious questions to the Central Government, which seems to have become the master of the caged parrot all over again,” Singhvi said. Singhvi questioned as to why the CBI counsel argued “only for 15 minutes” whereas defence lawyers argued in favour of Shah for three days and why the agency also did not hire any Special Public Prosecutor for the case.
Slamming the CBI, the Aam Aadmi Party said there were “glaring discrepancies” in what is in the chargesheet and way the case was argued before the court. The party claimed the way the CBI has argued the case, it is nothing but a “blatant” and “open” misuse of country’s premiere agency. Senior AAP leader Yogendra Yadav demanded that the CBI should challenge the order in the High Court.