Cong questions CBI's role, says Shah's discharge worrisome

Questioning CBI's role in the matter, Congress today described as "strange and worrisome" a special court discharging BJP chief Amit Shah in Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter killing case and alleged that the "chained, caged and totally immobilised" probe agency was under "government pressure".

"There are many questions to answer, serious questions.... And most importantly there was statement under (Section) 164 (CrpC) before the magistrate. None of this was projected by the CBI counsel during the 15-minute submission before the Mumbai court.

"There are serious questions for the CBI to answer. There are serious questions to the central government, which seems to have become the master of the caged parrot all over again," party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said.

In his tweets, Singhvi questioned as to why the CBI counsel argued "only for 15 minutes" whereas defence lawyers argued in favour of Shah for three days and why the agency also did not hire any Special Public Prosecutor for the case.

He also questioned why the Special CBI judge, Special Public Prosecutor and Investigating Officers of the agency were "changed".

Singhvi also alleged in his tweets that the CBI counsel did not put material of the charge sheet calling Shah the "kingpin" and did not analyse witness statements recorded under Section 164 of CrPC before the magistrate.

Recalling that there was earlier a judicial order that Shah should be kept away from Gujarat as he can influence the investigations, another party spokesperson Ajoy Kumar wondered "suddenly you find that there has been a total u-turn ...suddenly he is exonerated."

"So it is definitely worrisome... it is very strange," Kumar said wondering how can an evidence be produced in court at one time that ensures that Shah is put behind bars, which is then followed by an order that "externs" him from Gujarat and then "suddenly a judgement that there is not enough evidence".

Kumar said that this entire episode goes to show the way that the present government is going to "use the CBI".

Recalling that the BJP used to say during UPA's rule that CBI was a "caged parrot", the Congress spokesperson alleged, "CBI is now chained, caged and totally immobilised... there must be a tremendous pressure from Government on the CBI...it needs a much deeper inquiry and is definitely worrisome."