Ahmedabad, 7 May, 2014

The CBI on Wednesday gave clean chit to BJP general secretary and former Minister of State (MoS) for Home in Gujarat in connection to the 2004 Ishrat Jahan encounter case.

Earlier, sources in the probe agency had said that Amit Shah was not present in Ahmedabad at the time when Ishrat Jahan encounter took place.

Earlier, as per the sources, the probing agency did not find any substantial evidence against Shah.

CBI sources have claimed that everything depends on the CBI director, who can ask for further investigation if he wants.

Ishrat, a Mumbai-based student, her friend Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, and their associates Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were gunned down by Crime Branch sleuths on June 15, 2004 near Ahmedabad.

According to CBI, the encounter, a joint operation by Gujarat Police and Intelligence Bureau, was fake.