Sohrabuddin case: CBI takes Amit Shah into custody

The Central Bureau of Investigation on 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 in Ahmedabad early on Saturday morning and took Shah into custody after a routine medical check-up. The high court had on Friday, setting aside a lower court order, remanded the former minister of state for home to 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 Bharatiya Janata Party 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 the CBI had statements of witnesses, who said it was on Shah's orders that Kausar Bi and Prajapati were eliminated by the other accused in the case.

Tulsi said CBI had got details of the phone call records from the Gujarat CID, which was probing the case before it was transferred to the 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.