The CBI on Wednesday accused former Gujarat minister Amit Shah of being part of an ?extortion syndicate? which staged the fake encounter of Tulsiram Prajapati. The politician hit back, accusing the agency of conniving with the central government to remove a ?thorn in (the government?s) side?.
In daylong arguments before a Supreme Court Bench led by Justice P Sathasivam, the CBI supported a petition filed by Prajapati?s mother Narmada Bai seeking the transfer of the probe into her son?s death from the Gujarat CID to the central agency.
Senior advocate KTS Tulsi, arguing for the CBI, said the deaths of alleged gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh, his wife Kauser Bi, and Ujjain sharpshooter and Sheikh?s trusted lieutenant Prajapati were ?part of one and the same transaction?. ?The Prajapati case is an integral part of the Sheikh encounter investigations,? Tulsi told the court.
Counsel for Shah, senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, strongly protested Tulsi?s line of argument. The entire case was ?politically motivated?, and the CBI was dancing to the tune of its political masters, he said.
?It is just an illusion to say that CBI is a premier investigating agency. There is evidence to prove that this is a conspiracy between CBI and the central government to target a democratically-elected government which is a thorn in its side. The idea is to first target Amit Shah and then fix (Gujarat) chief minister Narendra Modi and his government,? Jethmalani submitted. In its November 2010 investigation report to a different SC Bench monitoring the Sheikh encounter case, the CBI had asked for the transfer of the Prajapati case to itself. ?In order to prevent abuse of process of law and to come to the core of the most heinous crime prima facie committed by the high level officials of the state of gujarat, the investigation into the Prajapati encounter also needs to be transferred to the CBI,? the report filed by chief investigating officer Amitabh Thakur said.
The report said Prajapati had, a month before his death, predicted the exact manner in which the Gujarat and Rajasthan police would stage his killing. He had told the Ahmedabad Principal Judge that the police would help him escape from custody, and then kill him in an ?encounter?. ?After the fake encounter of Sohrabuddin and murder of Kauserbi, Prajapati knew that his death was imminent at the hands of the Gujarat Police in connivance with the Rajasthan Police as he was the only surviving prime witness to the abduction and killing,? the CBI said in the report.