BJP president Amit Shah at the BJP office in Delhi. (Image by Ketki Angre)
Amit Shah, the president of the ruling BJP, was greeted with garlands and fireworks by party men in Delhi after a court today said he will not face murder charges for the extra-judicial killings of gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh, his wife and a witness a decade ago.
Here are 10 developments in this story:
A special court of the CBI or Central Bureau of Investigation in Mumbai accepted Mr Shah's argument that he was "involved in the case by the CBI for political reasons."
Mr Shah, 50, was accused by the CBI of ordering the killings when he was home minister of Gujarat under Narendra Modi, then chief minister.
"There isn't sufficient evidence against Accused no. 16 (Amit Shah) to put him to trial. The CBI's inference is not acceptable when the case is seen in totality," a judge said, finding most of the evidence against the BJP chief "hearsay."
The family of Sohrabuddin Sheikh will move the Bombay High Court against the order. "The CBI has been misused to protect Amit Shah," Sohrabuddin's brother Rubabuddin alleged.
In a charge-sheet in 2013, the CBI had accused Mr Shah of running an extortion racket with police officers and Sohrabuddin Sheikh, a small time criminal. Mr Shah and Sohrabuddin fell out, the agency said.
The CBI alleges that in November 2005, Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kauser Bi were snatched from a bus in Maharashtra and killed in Gujarat. Gujarat policemen had claimed that Sohrabuddin had links with Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba and planned to assassinate Mr Modi.
A year later, a witness to those killings, Tulsiram Prajapati, was also shot dead; the Gujarat police claimed he was trying to escape from custody.
Mr Shah quit as Gujarat's home minister in 2010 after he was arrested in the case. He got bail three months later. The case was transferred from Gujarat to Mumbai in 2012.
The CBI said phone records show Mr Shah had multiple calls with the accused officers around the time of the killings. But the judge said today it is "not unnatural" for a home minister to work closely with the police as "terrorist activities have increased and are rampant all over the world."
"The court's verdict vindicates our stand," said Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. Mr Shah became president of the BJP in July, two months after he helped the party deliver India's biggest election victory since 1984.
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