Mumbai:
Amit Shah, Narendra Modi's close aide and the man who scripted the BJP's fantastic electoral performance in Uttar Pradesh, has been asked to appear before a CBI court in Mumbai on June 6 in connection with the 2006 Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter case that was transferred from Gujarat to Mumbai. (
How Amit Shah Delivered Uttar Pradesh For the BJP )On the first day of hearing on May 9, the judge had asked Mr Shah to be present in court on May 23. But the hearing was adjourned today.
Mr Shah has been accused of sanctioning the fake encounters that led to the deaths of Tulsiram Prajapati in 2006 and the petty criminal he worked for, Sohrabuddin Sheikh, in 2005. He was arrested in July 2010 and released on bail three months later.
The CBI filed a charge-sheet in the case in September last year and named Mr Shah, the former Home Minister of Gujarat, along with 18 others, including several police officers. Mr Shah has been booked for criminal conspiracy, destruction of evidence and offences under the Arms Act.
Sohrabuddin, his wife Kauser Bi and Tulsiram were traveling on a bus from Andhra Pradesh in 2005 when they were abducted by the Gujarat police. Sohrabuddin and his wife were killed a few days later. Tulsiram, the sole witness to their abduction, was shot dead a year later; the police claimed that he was trying to escape from their custody.
Before the state government admitted that the deaths were fake encounters, the police alleged that Sohrabuddin and Tulsiram were terrorists, who planned to assassinate political leaders.
But later, investigations by the CBI suggested that Sohrabuddin had become an irritant for the powerful marble lobby in Rajasthan with constant attempts to blackmail some of its big players. Mr Shah, the CBI says, was roped in to help, and as Home Minister commissioned the police to assassinate Sohrabuddin.