“Gujarat Police killed gangster and extortionist Sohrabuddin to get rid of that hated person”

New Delhi, 17 November, 2011

Former Gujarat minister of state for Home Shri Amit Shah today alleged in the Supreme Court of India that he was a victim of a political conspiracy and that he had been falsely implicated in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case by the CBI.

Amit Shah’s counsel and senior advocate Ram Jethmalani submitted before a bench comprising Justice Aftab Alam and Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai following points during the hearing of CBI’s plea seeking cancellation of bail granted to Shah by the Gujarat high court.:

-Amit Shah is the victim of political conspiracy to which CBI is a party,”

-For implicating Shah in the case of Soharabuddin, who was a gangster and extortionist, the CBI has been trying to connect him with other criminal cases for political reasons with which the case in hand had no linkage.

-Soharabuddin Sheikh case was a political issue in the 2007 Assembly election and they (CBI) want it to continue as a political issue.

-The Gujarat police had admitted that Sohrabuddin was killed in a fake encounter but to say that the incident had connections with cases of extortion of money or smuggling allegedly involving Shah would be wrong.

-They (Gujarat Police) killed him (Sohrabuddin) as they wanted to get rid of him and of a person who was involved in extortion of money. It was a fake encounter but police wanted to get rid of a hated person.(Jethmalani was responding to a question by a bench whether “every criminal” can be called a “terrorist”).