Sabkush Headlines: I am a tough nut to crack, says Shah

Sabkush Headlines: I am a tough nut to crack, says ShahI am a tough nut to crack, says Shah





Shah, chargesheeted in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh Fake Encounter case by the CBI, vehemently claimed that he was innocent before moving to the CBI office in Gandhinagar to surrender. He said all charges against him were fabricated, adding that the Supreme Court-ordered CBI probe was engineered for a "political encounter of the Gujarat government". The former minister said the copy of the chargesheet was yet to be given to him and he came to know of the charges through the media. Asked how he would deal with the CBI interrogation, the BJP leader said, "Dont worry about me. I will prove quite tough (for CBI) to handle." On the Congress terming Sohrabuddin a petty criminal, he said: "If a person like Sohrabuddin who possessed 45 AK-47 rifles, hand grenades and ammunition is a petty criminal, then do they need the Pakistan Army to qualify as a terrorist?" He further said that against "only nine encounters" executed by it, the Gujarat Police has caught alive 400 offenders in the battle against terrorism. Ignoring other states and singling out Gujarat for encounter killings "is a big conspiracy against the Narendra Modi-led government", he said. The Congress could not digest the states progress and development, he added. Asked on the reasons for not appearing before CBI, he said there was no point in that because the Central agency was "busy photocopying" the chargesheet that was already prepared. He said he had applied for anticipatory bail because he was not given time to prepare to appear before CBI. "I received the summon at 11 am on July 22, asking me to appear by 1 pm. How was that possible? And then by 5 pm, they came up with the chargesheet, naming me as an accused. This means the chargesheet was ready even before they heard me," he said. Shah denied having the reported conversation with jailed IPS officer D G Vanzara in which he had allegedly told the latter that Sohrabuddins wife Kausarbi would prove dangerous for them. He said CBI had levelled the charges against him on the basis of a recorded statement of Vanzara in jail, adding that using a recorder in jail was illegal. Before leaving for the CBI office, he penned an "open letter" to the people of Guajrat, maintaining his innocence. "My police officers and I have been falsely implicated. I have done all possible good in my capacity as home minister," he wrote. Earlier, state BJP president R C Faldu briefed the media as originally announced. He said the CBI probe indicated that the Congress was unable to digest the "all-round progress of Gujarat under Modi". Amit Shah has been kept in Tilak Yard of the Sabarmati Central Jail, according to sources. This is the same yard in which former BJP minister Dr Maya Kodnani was kept after her arrest in the 2002 riots case. Sources added that two prime accused in the case, D G Vanzara and Rajkumar Pandian, visited him in the chamber of the jail superintendent. Since the CBI issued its first summons against him on Friday, Shah had been untraceable. Till 2 pm today, when he drove into the CBI office from the party headquarters, accompanied by senior state BJP leaders. Having denounced the charges against him as politically motivated at the party office earlier, he was quiet as he walked into the old Secretariat building, housing the CBI office on the third floor, as were his supporters. Tense CBI officials, including DIG P Kandaswamy and SP Amitabh Thakur, however, hastened down the stairs and despite Shahs suggestion that he be taken to the agency office, told him he was being taken to court. Asked by Magistrate Dave if he had any complaints against the CBI, Shah told his lawyer to convey that since his arrest no interrogation had been done by the agency. Shahs lawyer Devang Nanavati said he was surprised. "The CBI has not even asked for Shahs custody. This shows that the CBI has no material against him and it is a concocted case," he said. Shah told the media that his statements should be videographed "second-by-second" and should be produced before the court as he was not afraid of any legal process. Shah said that while he still didnt have a copy of the chargesheet, he had come to know of the charges through the media. The BJP and he would fight a legal and political battle to "expose them" in court, he said. He maintained that he had applied for anticipatory bail only because he was not given time to prepare to appear before the CBI. Shah denied having the reported conversation with jailed IPS officer D G Vanzara, in which he had allegedly told the latter that Kausar Bi was going to prove dangerous. Attacking the CBI for basing the charges against him on a recorded statement of Vanzara in jail, he kept maintaining that using a recorder in jail was illegal.