Within a day of his release from prison, the Supreme Court issued notice to the former Gujarat Minister, Amit Shah, asking why his bail should not be cancelled.
Arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation on July 25 in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case, Mr. Shah was granted bail by the Gujarat High Court on Friday and he was released later in the night.
At a special sitting on Saturday, a Bench of Justices Aftab Alam and R.M. Lodha issued the notice after hearing senior counsel K.T.S. Tulsi and counsel Subramonium Prasad for the CBI, and counsel Bhupender Yadav and Bina Madhavan for Mr. Shah. The Bench asked Mr. Shah to file his reply by November 10 and the CBI its rejoinder by November 12, and directed that the CBI special leave petition be listed for November 15.
The CBI swung into action and moved the Supreme Court for a stay of the High Court order, hoping that Mr. Shah would not be released from jail at night as doing so would be a violation of the prison manual. But as Mr. Shah was released at night, the appeal was filed by Mr. Subramonium Prasad early in the morning on Saturday.
During the sitting at the residence of Justice Alam, Mr. Tulsi produced a copy of the statement of an abducted key witness, Mohammed Azam, recorded before a magistrate, and prayed for a stay of the bail order. When Justice Alam pointed out that Mr. Shah had already been released, Mr. Tulsi submitted that he was released at 10.30 p.m. on Friday, in violation of the prison manual. Counsel also expressed apprehensions that Mr. Shah would tamper with evidence.
But Ms. Bina Madhavan said there was no ground for such apprehension.
The Bench recorded the submissions, and directed Mr. Shah to leave Ahmedabad on Sunday morning and not to enter Gujarat until further orders on November 15.
The CBI said investigation revealed that Mr. Shah, in pursuance of a criminal conspiracy, gave illegal instructions on the probe of the Sohrabuddin case to G.C. Raiger, then Additional Director-General of Police, Home Guard, but as he did not follow the instructions, he was relieved of the additional charge of CID (Crime).
The CBI said investigation disclosed that Gujarat police teams headed by the accused D.G. Vanzara and M.N. Dinesh had been interacting with each other for more than a year to trace Sohrabuddin. This was further evidence of the conspiracy for the fake encounter. The CBI said Mohammed Azam was kidnapped on September 21, when Mr. Shah was in judicial custody and there was enough material to show that some police officers had conspired to destroy crucial evidence. There was a systematic attempt by Mr. Shah to tamper with evidence.
