Amit Shah case: BJP questions Gandhi's silence on the apology

New Delhi: BJP on Wednesday questioned Congress President Sonia Gandhi's silence on the apology demanded from her by the party for alleged misuse of CBI by the previous UPA government, in the wake of a special CBI court discharging its chief Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case.

Accusing the Congress of misusing CBI for its political gains, the BJP has alleged the party conspired to embroil Shah in a fake case to tarnish his image for which Gandhi should apologise before the nation. People should ask Congress' first family as to why they misused CBI while in power. They should also condemn the Congress for misusing CBI for political gains. BJP also questions the silence over the apology sought by BJP from Sonia Gandhi for misuse of investigative agency against its political opponents during the previous regime, BJP's national secretary Shrikant Sharma said. While Congress used CBI to implicate opposition leaders in false cases, he alleged, adding, it also misused the agency to save its own corrupt leaders and cited the example of Ashok Chavan. The special court judgement proves that Congress cannot take on the BJP politically and hence has resorted to cheap tactics to sully Shah's image, he said. Taking a dig at so-called secular forces and intellectuals, Sharma said their silence over this issue reveals their true character. It also proves that these so-called intellectuals and self-declared secular outfits of political parties would indulge in appeasement even on an issue like terror to further the interests of their corrupt political patron, he said. The BJP leader said Sohrabuddin Sheikh was a noted gangster and had links with Pakistan's ISI and other terrorist outfits and was killed in an encounter in Gujarat. Special CBI judge M B Gosavi in his order ruled, Amit Anilchandra Shah is discharged from the case...I am of the opinion that the inference that the CBI has drawn is not accepted as the entire record when considered in totality there is no case against the applicant. While discharging Shah, the judge observed, I also found substance in the main contention (of the defence) that Shah was shown to be involved in this case by CBI for political reasons.
Sohrabuddin, a gangster, whom Gujarat police claimed had links with Lashkar-e-Taiba, and his wife Kausar Bi were allegedly abducted by Gujarat ATS from Hyderabad on their way to Sangli in Maharashtra. Sohrabuddin was killed in a fake encounter near Gandhinagar in November 2005 after which his wife disappeared and was believed to have been done to death. Shah, who was then Minister of State for Home in Gujarat government, was alleged to have plotted the killings with some police officers.