Amit Shah, former Gujarat Home Minister, was questioned by the CBI on Saturday in connection with fake encounters. Jailed IPS officer D.G. Vanzara had alleged in his resignation letter that the government closely monitored every police action involving ‘terrorists’ during his tenure. The questioning of Mr. Shah, a close aide of BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, comes close on the heels of the CBI preparing a supplementary charge sheet covering the conspiracy angle in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case. An accused in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh and Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounters, Mr. Shah was released on bail some time ago. He is presently the BJP’s election campaign in-charge in Uttar Pradesh.
In his resignation letter dated September 1, Mr. Vanzara said the government was “inspiring, guiding and monitoring” police actions from very close quarters. Of Mr. Shah, his prime target, Mr. Vanzara wrote: “His [Mr. Shah’s] unholy grip over the State administration is so complete that he is almost running the government of Gujarat by proxy… the resultant criminal negligence of this government on the one hand and wilful acts of omissions and commissions by Shri Amitbhai Shah towards the fate of 32 jailed police officers on the other are so nauseating that it may take this government to the crematorial ground sooner or later.”