Ahmedabad:
A day after the Gujarat High Court gave bail to former minister and Narendra Modi aide Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case, Shah has left Gujurat.
The Supreme Court had directed him to stay away from the state from Sunday morning till further orders. Amit Shah, through his lawyers, opposed the court's direction for him to stay away from Gujarat but the court said, "It is in your interest if you stay away from Gujarat".
The apex court also issued notices to Amit Shah and Gujarat government on why his bail should not be cancelled after the CBI filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking cancellation of the bail and sought an urgent hearing.
(Read: Who is Amit Shah?)The apex investigating agency argued that Amit Shah may tamper with evidence while on bail.
"I want to say only this much that the CBI had filed a petition because of its strong apprehensions that the accused, Amit Shah, can wield lot of influence and can tamper with evidence. So we filed the petition last night, although all the documents were not available. They had yet to arrive from Ahmedabad," senior lawyer KTS Tulsi, who appeared for CBI in the High Court, accompanied CBI officials when the petition was filed, said.
The petition was filed in the Deputy Registrar's office around 10.30 pm on Friday night after the top brass of the premier investigating agency decided to move the Supreme court for cancelling the bail.
"The petition was filed at the residence of the Registrar of the Supreme Court and the Registrar was requested to obtain necessary orders for constitution of the Bench. The Bench was eventually constituted today and the hearing took place at 5 pm. In the course of hearing, the judges enquired as to whether Mr. Amit Shah is still in custody or has he been released. We informed the court that according to our information Mr. Amit Shah was released from jail around 10.15-10.30 pm last night, which is clearly contrary to the Prison Manual and the Prison Rules. We also expressed our strong apprehension that the lives of various witnesses may be put at risk," Tulsi added.
The Court will be on a brief Diwali recess from Monday. The Deputy Registrar is the court's Vacation officer.
It is likely that the petition may come up before the Vacation bench of the Supreme Court on Saturday.
The next hearing is on November 15.
The Gujarat High Court had on Friday granted Shah bail, three months after he was arrested in connection with the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.
(Read: Ex-Gujarat minister Amit Shah gets bail) |
(Read: Who was Sohrabuddin Sheikh?)