Battling allegations of misuse of central agencies by Opposition leaders by the Bharatiya Janata Party, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was “putting pressure” on him to “frame” Narendra Modi, who was then the Chief Minister of Gujarat, in an alleged fake encounter case.
The Home minister said that it was during the rule of the Congress government, and the BJP had never created a ruckus over it by wearing black clothes. The Home minister’s response came in reference to the logjam in the Parliament where Congress MPs wore black clothes to Parliament to protest against the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi from the Lok Sabha, following his conviction in a criminal defamation case.
“The CBI had arrested me in an encounter case when I was the Home minister of Gujarat. It must hopefully be in CBI’s record, if the officers have kept the evidence, and the Congress didn’t remove it. In 90 per cent questions, they asked me not to get worried. ‘Give us Modi’s (Narendra Modi) name, we will leave you’,” he said at a News 18 event in New Delhi.
“We didn’t wear black clothes or oppose it,” he added.
“I was arrested, and in 90 days I was granted bail by the High Court, where it said that there was no solid proof for arrest. I had applied for acquittal in the Bombay High Court, outside Gujarat, and I had no issues with that. There, the court said that the CBI had acted on political directions in an act of political vengeance,” Shah said adding that he was acquitted of all charges against him.
Countering allegations of the misuse of agencies, Shah the tenure of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and said that thousands of innocent people were imprisoned during the 19 months of the Emergency. Referring to the Congress, Shah asked who “filed cases against Lalu Prasad Yadav” and who had “sent a plane full of officials” from Delhi to arrest Shaikh Abdullah.
The Home Minister said that the BJP won two consecutive elections – 2014 and 2019 – elections on the plank of anti-corruption. “Shall we stop the fight against corruption? Should we not act if the accused is a politician,” Shah asked.
