HC grants bail to Amit Shah

AHMEDABAD/NEW DELHI: In a major blow to CBI, the Gujarat high court on Friday granted bail to former state home minister Amit Shah, more than three months after he was arrested by the investigative agency in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake-encounter case.

Justice R H Shukla granted bail to the 46-year-old BJP leader, considered to be a close confidant of chief minister Narendra Modi, on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh and a condition that he will have to appear before the CBI’s Mumbai office every month as the case was registered there.

With CBI failing in its attempt to keep Mr Shah in custody for long, the HC decision is a major boost for BJP. The news set off scenes of jubilation in the party offices, both in Gujarat and in the Capital.

Soon after the news poured in, BJP renewed its attack on Congress-led UPA government at the Centre for misusing CBI to launch a witch-hunt against the Narendra Modi government in Gujarat.

“It’s a victory of justice. CBI was acting under political pressure from the Centre,” BJP spokesman Tarun Vijay told newspersons in the Capital. The news that CBI had earlier in the day been given a severe tongue-lashing by the Supreme Court for its slipshod probe in the 2G spectrum allocation scam, added ammunition to the principal Opposition party’s onslaught against the Manmohan Singh government’s misuse of the investigative agency for petty political ends.

“The government is playing with institutions which are supposed to uphold the spirit of fair-play. CBI is proving that it likes to get used for political ends to get government support,” Mr Vijay added.

The mood in the Congress camp, on the other hand, was grim. It sought to wash its hands off the entire controversy, saying it was an issue among the former Gujarat minister, the court and CBI, but accused BJP of having double standards on the investigating agency.

“The issue (fake-encounter case) is between the former home minister, court and CBI...The court will decide who is innocent and who is guilty,” party spokesman Manish Tewari told newspersons in New Delhi.

He said the case was registered against Mr Shah after a PIL was filed on the direction of the Supreme Court. He, at the same time, lashed out at the “double standards” of BJP on CBI, saying while in the case of slain former home minister Haren Pandya the party had one standard, it had another in the case of Mr Shah.

“The father of Pandya has raised questions about the probe into his death. But BJP held that CBI was good in that case. In the case of Mr Shah, BJP is questioning the role of CBI. I think BJP needs to eschew double standards and have one stand for CBI,” Mr Tewari said.

Mr Shah was arrested by CBI on July 25 and has spent over three months in the Sabarmati jail in Ahmedabad. The court also rejected the demand of the CBI to grant three weeks’ stay on the bail order as the agency would like to appeal against the verdict. The plea was made by CBI counsel Yogesh Ravani.

Mr Shah’s lawyer Nirupam Nanavati assured the court that his client would comply with all the terms and conditions of the bail and also any additional terms which the CBI would like to impose.

Mr Shah is likely to be released from the Sabarmati jail after the due process is over, Mr Nanavati said. The former Gujarat home minister has been described by the CBI as the “kingpin” of the conspiracy leading to the fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh in November 2005 and killing of two key witnesses, Soharabuddin’s wife Kausarbi and his close aide Tulsiram Prajapati.

The three-month-long battle between the CBI and Mr Shah witnessed a clash of legal luminaries such as former union minister Ram Jethmalani, who appeared on behalf of the state home minister, and Mr K T S Tulsi, who appeared for the investigating agency.