Ahmedabad:
The CBI questioned Amit Shah on Wednesday morning in the Sabarmati Jail where the former Gujarat minister has been staying since he was arrested over the weekend on murder charges. (
Read: CBI asks Amit Shah 37 questions on Sohrabuddin)
Shah, a close aide of Chief Minister Narendra Modi, allegedly conspired in November 2005 with some of the state's senior-most policemen to kill Sohrabuddin Sheikh, a young Muslim man, and his wife, Kauser Bi. At the time, the police claimed that Sohrabuddin was a terrorist from the Laskhar-e-Toiba and was en route to assassinate the Chief Minister.
The state government has since admitted this was not correct. Before Shah was arrested, senior policemen were sent to jail on charges of kidnapping, criminal conspiracy and murder. They include NK Amin, who has, this week, asked if he can turn approver in the case against Shah. (
Read: Modi minister Amit Shah surfaces, arrested for murder in Sohrabuddin case)
The evidence against Shah includes phone records that show he spoke repeatedly on his cellphone to policemen - including Amin - from November 21 to 30 - before and during the period that Sohrabuddin and Kauser were abducted and killed. (
Read: Sohrabuddin killed for money and politics: CBI chargesheet)
Policemen from Gujarat's Anti-Terror Squad forced Sohrabuddin and Kauser off a bus headed to Sangli on November 22, 2005.
NDTV has access to the phone records between Shah and Amin. These establish that Shah spoke 25 times to Amin as the Sohrabuddin and Kauser murders took place. The frequency of Shah's calls with Amin shoot up on November 26 when Sohrabuddin was killed in a fake encounter. Shah and Amin speak often again in the hours leading upto November 29, when Kauser was murdered.
Another policeman, NV Chauhan, has also allegedly testified that Shah called another senior policeman, DG Vanzara (also now in prison) and asked him to ensure Kauser was killed in a manner which would ensure that her body could not be identified.
On November 29, the police got down to the business of getting rid of Kausar's corpse.
Inspector VA Rathod was in charge of organising the wood needed to burn her body. When his car broke down, he called a junior for assistance. Rathod's cellphone records establish his location; the timings of his calls prove he was involved with the police's exercise to eliminate any trace of Kauser.