CBI faces Supreme Court heat over “absolute trash complaints” against Amit Shah

New Delhi, 18 November, 2011

The CBI’s attempt to nail Gujarat Government’s former Minister Amit Shah as “kingpin” of an extortion racket in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case was thoroughly exposed by the Supreme Court on Thursday.

During the hearing of the plea by CBI seeking cancellation of the bail granted to Shah by the Gujarat High Court in the fake encounter killing case, the Supreme Court slammed the CBI for anonymous letters against former Gujarat home minister Amit Shah, an accused in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter killing case, as complaints about his alleged involvement in an extortion racket came in. “This is clearly an insinuation which is wholly unwarranted and totally unfair”, a bench comprising justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Prakash Desai said.

Turning to the CBI counsel Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Vivek Tankha, the SC Bench which perused 200 such complaints made available to it by CBI against Shah, exclaimed, “You (CBI) told us on these complaints no action has been taken (by the state government). No action can be taken on these letters. The complaints appear to be absolute trash.”

“You (CBI) are supposed to be our finest investigators. Now you have to respond to all these lapses and ineffeciencies”, the bench said.

“This is clearly an insinuation which is wholly unwarranted and totally unfair”, a bench comprising justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Prakash Desai said.

Embarrassingly for the CBI, these 200 complaints were annexed by the agency in its status report submitted to the court. Jethmalani said it showed total non-application of mind.

The CBI status report, mentioning 199 complaints of threat and extortion against Shah, was forwarded by the CBI to the State Government on which no action was taken. In addition, it said, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) received 45 more complaints. In this context, the CBI claimed that the “atmosphere” was vitiated for a fair trial in the State. The agency even pressed for cancellation of Shah’s bail on this ground.

Reacting to the manner in which the trial was conducted by the CBI, Jethmalani had told the court, “Because these reports were in sealed cover they (CBI) thought they could make any allegation and get away. It is a case in which CBI officers must be prosecuted and jailed.” The arguments in the case will be taken up next on Tuesday.