The Supreme Court on Saturday virtually made Gujarat as “taripaar” (out of bound) for former minister of state for home Amit Shah for next two weeks, a day after he was granted bail by the state High Court in the Sohrabbuddin “fake encounter” case.
A bench of Justice Aftab Alam and R.M. Lodha passed an order to this effect on the CBI’s appeal challenging the HC verdict granting bail to Shah.
The bench met for an emergency hearing at the residence of Justice Alam after the CBI’s petition was referred to it by Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia for urgent hearing sought by the agency. After the hearing, senior advocate K.T. Tulsi, who appeared for the CBI briefed the media persons about the order.
Mr Tulsi said the apex court has issued notice to Shah while taking cognisance of the CBI petition and directed that he should file his reply by November 15 when the court would take up the matter for detailed hearing. Till next hearing, Shah was ordered to remain away from Gujarat and directed to leave the state by Sunday morning.
The interim direction was issued in the wake of CBI’s apprehension that in view of Shah’s “enormous influence” as former minister, there was every chance of his “tampering” with the crucial evidence, Mr Tulsi said.
However, the top court issued the direction that Shah should remain away from Gujarat only after seeking the view of his counsel Bhupendra Yadav, who stated that he had no objection to this.
As the Supreme Court is closed for the whole week due to the “Diwali”, in order to have smooth hearing on the CBI’s appeal on reopening on November 15, the bench directed the agency to supply the copy of its petition and other requisite documents by November 6 and submit rejoinder to his affidavit within the next six days thereafter.
Perturbed over the HC order, the CBI, which wanted to thwart Shah’s release from jail, had gone into a hectic exercise to move the appeal late at night before the top court’s registrar concerned to ensure that it is put up for emergency hearing on Saturday.
But by the time the petition was filed around 10.30 pm, Shah had already gained his freedom from the judicial custody.
The CBI had arrested Shah on July 25 accusing him of “masterminding” the fake encounter of alleged inter-state gangster and extortionist Sohrabuddin and his wife Kausar Bi in 2005.