Court decision on Shah 'victory of truth', says BJP

New Delhi: The BJP Tuesday welcomed the discharge of party president Amit Shah by a special court in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case and termed it a "victory of truth".

Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley called it Shah's "vindication".

Congress leader Raashid Alvi, however, accused the Narendra Modi government of misusing the Central Bureau of Investigation.

The BJP in a statement said Shah's discharge vindicated the party's stand and unwavering faith in the judiciary.

It also accused the Congress of misusing investigating agencies to implicate its political opponents and demanded an apology from Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

"The Congress always misused the CBI to fulfill its political interests. The Congress' dual character has been exposed. Now it is clear that the Congress-led UPA government conspired politically to implicate Shah," said a BJP statement issued by party secretary Shrikant Sharma.

It accused the Congress of resorting to a "crooked mode" to tarnish Shah's image as it (Congress) "cannot win politically".

"People of this country will never forgive this despicable antics. Congress President Sonia Gandhi should apologise to the nation for this odious crime," the statement said.

Jaitley said the CBI court discharging Shah in the alleged staged shootout case vindicated the party chief.

Shah Tuesday got a major relief when a special CBI court discharged him in the case related to Sohrabuddin Sheikh, his wife Kauserbi Sheikh and witness Tulsiram Prajapati in Gujarat.

Central Bureau of Investigation special judge M.B. Gosavi ruled that there exists "no case" against Shah and that he (Shah) was implicated in the case for "political reasons"

Jaitley said he was following the case and it was "politically motivated" to malign Shah and Modi, who was the Gujarat chief minister at that time.

"Since I had analysed the alleged evidence, both during investigation and after the filing of the chargesheet, I was among the few voices which had consistently maintained during the past three years that the prosecution of Amit Shah was a case of 'no evidence'," he wrote in an article posted on the BJP website.

Jaitley said he had written a letter Sep 27 to the then prime minister Manmohan Singh about the case.

He also criticised the media for reporting the case without "analysing the evidence in detail".

"The media allowed itself to report as was briefed by CBI," he said, alleging that the CBI in turn was being misused by the then Congress-led government.

In his letter to Manmohan Singh, Jaitley said the shootout, in which Sohrabudin Sheikh was killed, was an operation allegedly directed by the Intelligence Bureau of the central government.

He said Tulsi Prajapati was a case built up by the CBI as an extension to the Sohrabudin case.

Jaitley also said charges were filed against Shah at the behest of the then government.

"There was legally no admissible evidence against him. 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," he said.

"The fact that the CBI allowed itself to be misused was a cause for concern," he added.

Congress leader Alvi alleged that the CBI was working under pressure from the Modi government.

"There have been cases pending against him (Shah) for 10 years and all of a sudden, after six months' rule of Modi, the CBI has realised that there is no proof against him. It's an obvious example that the CBI is working under the pressure of the Modi government," he said.