AHMEDABAD: The threat of CBI closing in on Narendra Modi's closest aide and Gujarat's junior minister for home Amit Shah is haunting the BJP, reports Times of India.
CBI seems to have gathered evidence showing Amit Shah's involvement in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case and could arrest him at any time, sources said.
There has been nervousness since CBI, which was handed over the encounter probe by the Supreme Court, arrested the Ahmedabad crime branch chief Abhay Chudasama. The CBI is likely to file a chargesheet on July 26 against Chudasama, accused of being part of an alleged extortion racket run by the police in the name of fighting terror.
Before this, the CID (crime), which was probing the case, had arrested IPS officers DG Vanzara, Rajkumar Pandian of Gujarat and Dinesh MN of Rajasthan cadre in the same case. CID (crime) admitted before the SC that the encounter was fake and Sohrabuddin's wife Kauser Bi had been murdered by the Gujarat police. In all, 14 policemen of Gujarat and Rajasthan are in jail in this case.
CBI now appears to have phone records showing a number of calls made by Shah to Vanzara and Pandian during the time of the encounter on November 26, 2005 and after the petition was filed by Sohrabuddin's brother Rubabuddin in September 2006 on the disappearance of Kauser Bi.
More recently, the CID (crime) which is probing the related Tulsiram Prajapati encounter case, has also got call records showing Shah talking to Vanzara and Pandian around the time of his killing on December 28, 2006. Prajapati was the sole witness to the Sohrabuddin killing.
There has been a buzz for sometime that Shah would be picked up by CBI soon after the Rath Yatra, along with a couple of other senior Gujarat IPS officers. Shah has been in close touch with BJP leader Arun Jaitley. In the event of Shah's arrest, the BJP's central leadership looks all prepared to launch a political campaign, alleging victimisation by the UPA government through the CBI, even though the SC had ordered the investigation.
The crucial issue here is whether the CBI has any other evidence against Shah. CBI sources say there are numerous references to the minister's involvement in the statements of witnesses recorded under Section 164 of CrPC. Besides, they also have caught on camera Chudasama threatening a witness, who was sent in as a decoy, not to name the minister before the CBI.
