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SC reserves verdict on Amit Shah's bail in Sohrabuddin case
Thursday September 06, 2012 08:21:18 PM,
IANS
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New Delhi: The Supreme
Court Thursday reserved its order on a CBI plea for cancelling the
bail of former Gujarat minister Amit Shah in the 2005 Sohrabuddin
Sheikh staged shootout and transferring the trial from Gujarat to
Mumbai.
However, an apex court bench of Justice Aftab Alam and Justice
Ranjana Prakash Desai indicated that it might not disturb the bail
given to Shah, former minister of state for home, by the state
high court, subject to certain conditions, but may transfer the
trial to Mumbai.
Sohrabuddin Sheikh was killed in a staged shootout by Gujarat
Police in 2005. Shah was in the Gujarat cabinet when the killing
took place.
The court asked Shah's counsel Ram Jethmalani: "How do you assure
that if we allow you outside that you will not interfere with the
course of the trial?"
"You (Amit Shah) are a political person. You are an influential
person," the court said.
Jethmalani said on Shah's behalf: "I am not an influential person.
Had I been so, I would not be in a position that I am in."
He told the court that Shah would give an undertaking that he
would not interfere with the course of trial or subvert it as was
being alleged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
If Shah) breaches it, Jethmalani said, he would not appear to
defend him but to prosecute him.
Taking exception to the conduct of the Gujarat government, the
court said that instead of being an ally of the court in reaching
to the bottom of the case it had acted in an adversarial manner,
often adopting a hostile attitude.
Shah was named as an accused in Sohrabuddin Sheikh's killing in
which the CBI described him as a head of an extortion syndicate in
Gujarat. Shah was arrested by the probe agency July 25, 2010 for
his alleged involvement in Sohrabuddin's killing.
The former minister told the court: "I have no objection in being
tried by any court in Maharashtra but my bail may not be
disturbed."
The court wanted to know the position of the CBI which had opposed
the grant of bail to Shah.
Appearing for the CBI, senior counsel Vivek Tankha said that it
was a triple murder case and any grant of bail to Shah would
influence the charge sheet in the 2006 Tulsiram Prajapati alleged
staged shootout case. The probe agency's reference to triple
murder included the killings of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, his wife
Kausar Bi and Sohrabuddin's aide Tulsiram Prajapati.
Reiterating its plea for the cancellation of Shah's bail, Tankha
told the court: "We have faced a lot of problems at the hands of
the administration and we will continue to face it. The whole
administrative machinery revolves around Amit Shah."
"The magnitude of the state influence gets further magnified by
the CBI charge sheet in Tulsiram Prajapati case," Tankha told the
court, pointing to "evidence on record of collusion/connivance of
senior functionaries/officials in the state administration to
derail the investigation".
Tankha told the court that if Shah's bail was not cancelled then
other accused police officers in custody would also seek relief.
The CBI told the court that they would take another four weeks in
completing the investigation into the involvement of Andhra
Pradesh police officials in the Sohrabuddin case and in all six
weeks to commence trial in the Tulsiram Prajapati case.
Amicus Curiae Gopal Subramaniam told the court that the conduct of
the Gujarat government was evident from the judicial records of
the apex court and orders passed by it.
He said that it was only in March 23, 2007 that the state
government said that it was possible that some police officials
may have committed the crime and it was being investigated.
The court noted that earlier the Gujarat government was in a
strong denial mode.
"It was the state that was in mode of denial and you are holding
against this person (Amit Shah). If you can say that all earlier
denials were attributable to him, that will make the case...,"
Justice Alam said.
Subramaniam said: "At least I may not establish whether the state
of denial was attributable to him (Amit Shah) but there is a
commonality of position."
Sohrabuddin was killed by Gujarat Police Nov 25, 2005, in a staged
shootout. Prajapati was killed in an alleged staged shootout Dec
28, 2006.
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