Gujarat DGP Shabbir Khandwawala reportedly called up CBI director Ashwani Kumar with a request that his ex-boss and former minister of state for home Amit Shah is not locked up in the CBI lock up room during his two-day remand. Mr Ashwani Kumar and Mr Khandwawala are batchmates, both being IPS officers of the 1973 batch.
Mr Shah was taken on remand on Saturday and was put up at the CBI custody at night. According to sources, DGP Khandwawala had apparently called up the director to request him that the former minister is kept at Sabarmati jail instead of lock up room, which does not have a fan, a mattress and other basic facilities. “He was treated as an accused on parity with other accused,” a CBI official told this newspaper. Earlier also, Gujarat DGP and chief secretary A.K. Joti had called on CBI director and Cabinet secretary to raise their concernes about the probe in the sensational fake encounter case in which apart from Modi’s key aide Shah, four IPS officials are the main accused. After the arrest of Ahmedabad DCP Abhay Chudasama by the CBI on April 28, Gujarat government officials had called up the Cabinet secretary and CBI director to convey their “feelings about demoralization of police forces in the state.”
The Supreme Court bench consisting Justice R.S. Lodha and Justice Aftab Alam will hear Sohrabuddin fake encounter case in which Gujarat’s former minister of state for home Amit Shah is an accused on August 12.
The court will also hear the CBI’s demand for an extension of three months to probe Rajasthan’s angle in the fake encounter case as extortion has emerged as the main motive in the case involving police, criminals and politicians. On July 30, the CBI submitted its status report in a sealed over to the Supreme Court after completing six months in the probe. Meanwhile, the BJP’s Rajasthan unit has decided to oppose the CBI probe in the Sohrabuddin encounter case, terming it the “Congress Bureau of Investigation”.