Ahmedabad: Hearing on the bail plea of
former minister Amit Shah, arrested in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh
fake encounter case, was adjourned by the Gujarat High Court
today with his counsel submitting that the special CBI court
order not granting him bail "lacked judicial balance".
Justice R S Shukla put off the matter till October 26
after hearing the arguments of Shah's counsel Ram Jethmalani.
The BJP leader's bail was earlier rejected by CBI
court after which he approached the Gujarat High Court.
Jethmalani said the CBI court's order rejecting bail
plea of the former minister of state for home, who is in jail
since his arrest in late July, "lacked judicial balance".
The senior lawyer argued that Sohrabuddin, killed in a
staged shootout near here in November 2005, was an
"extortionist and a racketeer".
Shah's arrest by CBI was politically motivated and
aimed at tarnishing his reputation, he said.
Jethmalani submitted that CBI has cooked up the link
between Popular Builders firing case and the Sohrabuddin
episode to build up false evidence against the BJP leader.
According to the CBI charge sheet, Shah and Gujarat
Police staged the firing in the local office of Popular
Builders, a realty firm owned by Raman Patel and his brother
Dashrath, by Sohrabuddin's men to get a case filed against him
in the state so that they can later eliminate him.
PTI
First Published: Friday, October 22, 2010, 23:28