CBI gets permission to quiz Amit Shah in jail

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate A I Raval on Monday granted permission to the Central Bureau of Investigation to interrogate former Gujarat minister Amit Shah in Sabarmati Jail between July 28 and July 30 in connection with the Sohrabuddin encounter case.

The Magistrate also asked the probe agency to videotape the questioning of Shah.

Shah, who was arrested by the CBI on Sunday, also filed a bail application in the court of a special CBI judge, who will hear it on August 2.

"We have filed the bail application (of Amit Shah) in the special court," his lawyer Nirupam Nanavati said.

"In the application, we have stated that he is innocent," he said.

The bail application has been filed in the court of special CBI Judge G K Upadhaya in Ahmedabad for which the final hearing will be held on August 2, said Nanavati.

Nanavati said till date he has not received a copy of the chargesheet against Shah in the encounter case and has asked the court to provide it. On Friday, the anticipatory bail of Shah was rejected, making his arrest imminent.

He was taken into custody on Sunday by the CBI after he eluded the probe agency for three days. Shah, 46, resigned from the Modi government on Saturday after he was declared an accused in the charge sheet filed in the case.

The charge sheet has named Shah as a key accused along with IPS officers D G Vanzara, Rajkumar Pandian, M N Dinesh and Abhay Chudasama. In all, 15 accused have been named in the case.

According to the charge sheet, it was Shah who had entrusted the task of eliminating Sheikh, an alleged gangster, to Vanzara, Pandia and Chudasama.