| Font Size |
He has been charged with murder in connection with the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case and in the killing of his wife Kausar Bi. He resigned as Gujarat Minister of State for Home yesterday.
Shah was sent to judicial custody till August 7 by Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate A Y Dave, and will be housed in Sabarmati Central Jail. The CBI did not seek his police remand.
Since the CBI issued its first summons against him on Friday, Shah had been untraceable. Till 2 pm today, when he drove into the CBI office from the party headquarters, accompanied by senior state BJP leaders. Having denounced the charges against him as politically motivated at the party office earlier, he was quiet as he walked into the old Secretariat building, housing the CBI office on the third floor, as were his supporters.
Tense CBI officials, including DIG P Kandaswamy and SP Amitabh Thakur, however, hastened down the stairs and despite Shah’s suggestion that he be taken to the agency office, told him he was being taken to court.
Asked by Magistrate Dave if he had any complaints against the CBI, Shah told his lawyer to convey that since his arrest no interrogation had been done by the agency. Shah’s lawyer Devang Nanavati said he was surprised. “The CBI has not even asked for Shah’s custody. This shows that the CBI has no material against him and it is a concocted case,” he said.
Earlier, at the party office, Shah claimed that he was innocent and that the Supreme Court-ordered CBI probe into the Sohrabuddin case was a “political encounter of the Gujarat government”.
He also penned an “open letter to the people of Gujarat”, charging the Congress with trying to “destabilise the Gujarat government” and listing the state’s achievements in “the fight against terror” since Narendra Modi became the Chief Minister.
Shah told the media that his statements should be videographed “second-by-second” and should be produced before the court as he was not afraid of any legal process. Asked how he would deal with the CBI questioning, Shah said: “Don’t worry about me... I will prove quite tough for them to handle (bhari padoonga).”
Shah said that while he still didn’t have a copy of the chargesheet, he had come to know of the charges through the media. The BJP and he would fight a legal and political battle to “expose them” in court, he said.
Questioning the Congress depiction of Sohrabuddin as a petty criminal, Shah asked: “If a person like Sohrabuddin, who possessed 45 AK-47 rifles, hand grenades and a lakh of ammunition, is a petty criminal, then do they need the Pakistani army to qualify as a terrorist?”
Countering the charge of fake encounters levelled against the Gujarat government, the former junior minister of Home said that against “only nine encounters” that the state police conducted, it had nabbed 400 offenders alive in its battle against terrorism.
Shah said the Congress had hatched “a big conspiracy against the Narendra Modi-led government” as it could not digest the state’s progress and development.
He maintained that he had applied for anticipatory bail only because he was not given time to prepare to appear before the CBI.
Shah denied having the reported conversation with jailed IPS officer D G Vanzara, in which he had allegedly told the latter that Kausar Bi was going to prove dangerous. Attacking the CBI for basing the charges against him on a recorded statement of Vanzara in jail, he kept maintaining that using a recorder in jail was illegal.
Discuss this story on expressindia forums
|
|
According to BJP his party men or hindus can never do anything wrong. It tries to give communal colur to everything and forgets the interes of the nation. BJP must remember that a person is criminal by his acts but not by his religion.
Where did you quote this statement from, that BJP speaks of Hindus such? You contradict yourself, as it is people like you who looks at everything through the colored glass or religion and sectarianism. Your warped statement proves it.
I don't understand ,when Sohrabuddin Sheikh is known to be a criminal,what's the point of probing into his death now. Even if Amit Shah got him killed,as is being said,whats wrong in the thing? Don't CBI n our ruling party have anything else,more important than this,to do? So many people die and loads of wronh things too take place,the CBI or the police is not assigned the task of investigating those things. & here see..a criminal was killed n tantrums are being thown..!
Central Government has to set up an enquiry commission to release the Ajmal Kasab who was conspired on 26th Nov Mumbai attack which killed 156 plus Indian Citizens. Kasab being a Minor and was under pressure by the Maharastra Police to act at the Incident. CBI has to conduct an clear and open inquiry to find who were behind the attacks by Kasab. Also India has to pay tribute to those Minor terrorists who got killed by Military operation and Mumbai police during the fake encounter on 26th Nov. Also India should release all the terrorists who were in jail for several years, since the evidence charged against those terrorists were not accepted by the jailed terrorists.
Congress is playing dangerous games with India. Its shielding criminals and harassing Hindus.
Whether a LET terrorist is killed formally or casually should not be the main concern to normal public. If secular government is so secular and follow the constitution they must act similarly with all the cases across the country. The secular government is behind proving them self more secular puling their status towards the open supporter of a minority group. While doing so we are loosing our national interest.
Took rather long for one who claims he is innocent to surrender. If the charges are fabricated, the judiciary will definitely exonerate Shah. Or is it that Shah and his party, the BJP believe that the courts are also doing the biding of the Congress?
It is obvious that he was not hiding to escape, as it is made out to be. And neither is he some terrorist who will seek refuge in Dubai or Pakistan for life. He had told that as he was not sure of consulting his lawyer and disussing strategies, he was buying time.
Why does any issue arise to be just another BJP-congress rivalry? Well if Amit shah is really innocent why was he untraceable for 2 days?And when BJP was in power at the central govt,did it or could it manipulate the CBI to use it against the congress?The accusations made by the BJP create an immense doubt on the workings of the CBI and the indian judicial system.Are they suggesting that the CBI is corrupt and will do what the govt tells them to do?Well it is clear that he had some involvement.The CBI did not just stir this out of thin air!Why didnt they charge some other minister then? Amit shah's letter to the people of Ahmedabad is only to put them in an emotional journey.But he forgets,If not today,the truth will prevail.I hope he is innocent-No one would like his home minister to be doing such encounters,But if he is not, why is the BJP only acting to turn this into an anti-congress issue in the minds of the poeple? If People dont trust the govt,Atleast let them trust the CBI.
He was not trying to escape the country or something, he just consulted his lawers. If you mention of his open letter as an emotional journey, then what is the media trial that has been going on for days? If he has not been convicted by a court, then he is a mere accused. If in the end he be found innocent by the court, who will answer for all the negative publicity created around him and Gujrat government?
Now the ball is in CBI's court. It has to clear all doubts regarding the encounter case. When CBI targets Mr.Amit Shah, it withdrew all cases aginst Jagadish Tytler in Anti-Sikh riots! Why? Why did they refused to demand Amith Shah's custody for interrogation? if they do not want for questioning, then why did they send notice to him for questioning? All these questions will be faced by them at the court. Let truth comes out through our Judiciary.
After all the media sensationalism, the sudden appearence and the press conference was the minimum right of the minister, who was relentlessly media-trialled. If only sensationalism has news value, then it is the only resort for him to present his version of events before the public, as against the biased and one-sided reporting in the media. It is evident that the actions being played out by the investigative agancy are in adherence to a pre-conceived gameplan, which meets the political motives of its mentors.