Ahmedabad: The CBI Saturday took custody of
former minister Amit Shah after the Gujarat High Court
accepted the agency`s plea for his two-day remand in the
Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.
The central investigating agency team accompanied by
doctors reached the Sabarmati Jail here early this morning and
took Shah into custody after a routine medical check-up.
The High Court had yesterday, setting aside a lower court
order, remanded the former minister of state for home in
two-day CBI custody, beginning today and rejected a plea for
videography of his questioning.
Before giving Shah`s custody to CBI, Justice Akil Kureshi
had noted that since investigation in the case was on, it
would not be appropriate to elaborate or give an extensive
observation in the matter.
After the order was read out, one of Shah`s lawyers,
Mahesh Jethmalani had sought videography of the 46-year-old
BJP leader`s interrogation. CBI counsel K T S Tulsi had
opposed the plea, saying "it was a waste of time".
Shah`s lawyers had also sought a stay on the order to
approach a higher court. However, both requests were rejected.
In its petition, CBI had sought quashing of the August 4
order of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate AY Dave
rejecting the plea for remand of Shah, arrested on July 25.
Enumerating the grounds for Shah`s remand, Tulsi had said
that the former minister was the "kingpin" of the entire
conspiracy leading to the encounter of Sohrabuddin, killing of
his wife Kausar Bi and also Tulsi Prajapati, a key witness.
He contended that CBI had statements of witnesses, who
said it was on Shah`s orders that Kausar Bi and Prajapati were
eliminated by other accused in the case.
Tulsi said CBI had got details of the phone call records
from Gujarat CID, which was probing the case before it was
transferred to CBI by the Supreme Court in January this year.
Besides Shah, other accused in the case include suspended IPS
officers D G Vanzara, Rajkumar Pandiyan and M N Dinesh.
PTI
