Amit Shah taken into custody, says allegations fabricated

GANDHINAGAR/AHMEDABAD - Former Gujarat minister Amit Shah, charged with involvement in the 2005 killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh in a staged shootout, was taken into custody by the CBI in Gandhinagar Sunday.

Shah, who was missing since Thursday, earlier surfaced dramatically at a press conference of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Ahmedabad in the morning and said the allegations against him were fabricated.

Shah had walked in while BJP state unit chief R.C. Fardu was addressing the press.

Shah, who has been charge-sheeted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), said he was being framed by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in New Delhi in a desperate bid to ‘counter’ the Narendra Modi government in Gujarat.

He said he would go to the CBI court to surrender.

“The accusations against me are fabricated, politically motivated and framed on the behest of the Congress government,” Shah told reporters.

He pointed out that the CBI had submitted a charge sheet of 30,000 pages within a day, even though he had not appeared before the agency. “That means my summons were not linked to the charge sheet,” he added.

The minister also said that the summons showed that he was alleged to have issued threats, but the chargesheet seems to have accused him of murder.

Shah said that he was ready to “face all action and not scared of being arrested”. “I have full faith in judiciary and just want to say that it’s a conspiracy by Congress and misuse of power by the Congress to come in power in Gujarat,” Shah asserted.

He claimed that Sohrabuddin was a terrorist, who was involved in conspiracy against the nation. “Congress calls Sohrabuddin as a petty criminal but Gujarat Police has recovered 46 AK-47s, 100 hand grenades and 100,000 ammunition from the well in his house.”

Gujarat’s former minister of state for home asked why staged shootouts only in Gujarat were being investigated. “There have been 1,700 encounters all over the country… and targeting only the encounters in Gujarat is a Congress conspiracy,” he claimed.

He demanded that his submission before the CBI should be “videographed”. “When this matter comes before court, I am sure that none of the claims against me will stand,” Shah said.

Shah submitted his resignation to Chief Minister Narendra Modi Saturday.