Sohrabuddin case: Respond to Amit Shah’s claims, SC tells Centre

The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Centre to reply to allegations of former Gujarat home minister Amit Shah that he has been falsely implicated by CBI in Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case for ‘political reasons’.

A bench comprising Justice Aftab Alam and Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai asked government to respond to the allegations after the conclusion of Shah’s arguments in which he had contended that he was implicated because the Centre wanted to ‘destabilise’ the Narendra Modi government.

Senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, appearing for Shah, also raised questions with regard to the apex court’s verdict directing CBI to probe the case.

He submitted that the order should be considered ‘non est’ (not existing) as one of the judges (Justice Tarun Chatterjee, now retired) on the bench was himself under the scanner of CBI in the Uttar Pradesh Provident Fund case at the time of passing of the order.

The counsel was critical of CBI probe and said it was not better than the investigation done by Gujarat Police under its officer Geeta Johri

The court was hearing a petition filed by CBI challenging Gujarat High HC’s order granting bail to Shah.