CBI bid to brand me as extortionist, Shah tells apex court

NEW DELHI - The Supreme Court Thursday was told that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), while probing the 2005 Sohrabuddin Sheikh staged shootout, was trying to brand former Gujarat minister Amit Shah as an extortionist.

I am a democratically elected leader of the people. But I am being painted as a criminal who is running an extortion racket, Shah’s counsel Ram Jethmalani told the apex court bench of Justice Aftab Alam and Justice R.M. Lodha.

Jethmalani said this while the court was hearing a CBI petition for transfer of the trial in the Sohrabuddin case outside Gujarat and the cancellation of bail of Shah granted by the Gujarat High Court.

Shah, a Bharatiya Janata Party leader, is out of jail on bail but on account of an apex court direction he cannot enter Gujarat.

The court Thursday said this position of Shah could not continue permanently.

Jethmalani told the court far from keeping my client (Amit Shah) in jail even for day, the (apex) court will order the prosecution of the CBI officials engaged with the case.

Seeking the copy of the first status report filed by the investigating agency and the annexure, Jethmalani said: My client is innocent. I am entitled to show that the 199 complaints referred to in the first status report are not against me.

When the CBI said that these 199 complaints have already been handed over to the Gujarat government and its director general of police, Jethmalani said: Any confidential communication to the court is the highest contempt. It is wholly in contravention with the principle of natural justice and the provisions of the Indian Evidence Act.

I am an accused. I have to prepare my defence. Anything that influences the mind of the court must be given to me, senior counsel said.

The court allowed Jethmalani’s plea and ordered that the copy of the first status report be made available to the contending parties.

Appearing for the Gujarat government, senior counsel Ranjit Kumar also sought copies of the 199 complaints that the investigating agency relied upon to proceed against Shah.

At this, counsel appearing for Rubabuddin Sheikh, brother of Sohrabuddin, said that these 199 complaints were given to the state government and it has dealt with each one of them.

Sohrabuddin and his wife Kausarbi were picked up by Gujarat Police while they were travelling to Sangli in Maharashtra from Hyderabad Nov 22, 2005.

On Nov 26, 2005, Gujarat Police personnel killed Sohrabuddin in a shootout. Kausarbi, missing without a trace since then, is believed to have died under mysterious circumstances a few days later.