Amid Misuse Allegations, CBI to Seek Shah Custody Next Week: Reports
Amid ‘misuse’ allegations, leveled by the main Opposition – Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will seek custody of former Gujarat Minister of State for Home Amit Shah next week, said media reports on Sunday.
The federal probe agency will examine senior police officials before confronting Shah with evidence, in connection with the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, they said.
46-year-old Shah was arrested in Gandhinagar on Sunday, a day after he resigned his position in the Narendra Modi government even as reports suggested that the issue would be raked by main Opposition on the opening day of the Monsoon session of Parliament on Monday.
Narendra Modi maintained that Shah was “innocent” and a law-abiding citizen and alleged that a pick-and-choose approach was being pursued against Gujarat. He further charged that the CBI was being used as a political weapon to settle political scores.
Meanwhile, reports citing ‘informed sources’ said that the CBI would examine 53-year-old Geeta Johri, a 1982 batch IPS officer, who was a part of the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team probing the 2002 communal riots and former Ahmedabad Police Commissioner OP Mathur, who retired last year on March 31, 2009.
The CBI will record the statements of the two officials besides some more police officials and individuals, who would also be examined, they added.
On completing the examination of these officials, the CBI would take the custody Shah, who has been sent to Sabarmati jail in Ahmedabad till August seven, for a thorough interrogation, they said.
Shah has been charged under IPC Sections 302 (murder), 120 B (conspiracy), 341 (wrongful restraint), 342 (wrongful confinement), 364, 365 and 368 (all related to kidnapping), 384 (extortion) and 201 (disappearance of evidence).
Shah claimed that he was innocent and that charges against him were “fabricated, politically motivated and were on the instruction of Congress government” and demanded that his entire questioning by the CBI be video-graphed, added the reports.
