UPA conspiracy to book Kataria in shootout case: BJP

New Delhi: The CBI case against senior BJP leader Gulab Chand Kataria in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh shootout case was a conspiracy by the ruling UPA and not based on facts, the opposition party said on Wednesday.

"The booking of Kataria is not based on facts. It is a political conspiracy by the UPA to defame our leaders," BJP president Rajnath Singh told reporters at a news conference here. "We will fight the case both politically and legally," he said. Kataria, from Rajasthan, is the second high profile politician to be named in the alleged fake encounter case after former Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah, considered close to Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Besides Kataria, the others summoned by a Mumbai court include Andhra Pradesh Indian Police Service officer N. Balasubramaniam, police inspector Shrinivas Rao, and R.K. Marbles director Vimal Patni. The developments follow a supplementary chargesheet. Kataria becomes the second prominent politician involved in the case so far, the first being former Gujarat home minister Amit Shah. The Supreme Court had Sep 27 last year ordered the sensitive case ot be transferred to Maharashtra after the CBI said that witnesses were being threatened and the trial could not be conducted in a free and fair manner in Gujarat. According to the CBI, Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kauser Bi were allegedly kidnapped by Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad from Hyderabad and killed in a "gunfight" near Gandhinagar in November 2005. A year later, Tulsiram Prajapati, a prime witness to the incident, was allegedly killed in another staged gunfight in Chapri village of Gujarat`s Banaskantha district. IANS