No proof against Amit Shah in Ishrat case: CBI

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday said it did not have sufficient evidence to chargesheet Amit Shah, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s  aide, in the alleged fake encounter case of Ishrat Jahan and three others.

“There is no sufficient evidence against Amit Shah. Hence CBI has not chargesheeted him,” CBI’s Vishwas Kumar Meena said in an affidavit filed before the special CBI court in Ahmedabad.

“It is most respectfully submitted that Shah was not named in the First Information Report of the case. The CBI has also not named him in the chargesheet as an accused,” the CBI affidavit said.

Gopinath Pillai, father of Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai who was killed in the encounter, had approached the court of special CBI Judge Geeta Gopi to arraign Shah and former commissioner of police of the city, K R Kaushik, as accused in the encounter case.

Pillai had cited the resignation letter of suspended police officer and one of the accused in the Ishrat Jahan case, D G Vanzara, in his petition.

Regarding the resignation letter, the CBI said in its affidavit, “The said resignation letter contains general allegations” and does not provide “any concrete information about the role of Shah in this offence”. “After receiving the letter, CBI examined Vanzara in the Jail. However, he has not disclosed any further details during his examinations.”

Vanzara had in his letter said the police “was following a conscious policy of state government”, while conducting the encounter.

CBI has also given a clean chit to Kaushik and made him an witness in the case.

“During further investigation and evidence collected so far, it appears Kaushik was not involved in the conspiracy of killing the deceased,” it said, adding they have shown him as a prosecution witness in their supplementary chargesheet.

CBI has also asked the application filed by Pillai be dismissed. The central agency has named IPS officers Vanzara, P P Pandey, G L Singhal and other police officers as accused in the fake encounter case chargesheet, saying it was a joint operation by the Gujarat Police and the Intelligence Bureau.