AAP slams Sathasivam's appointment as Kerala governor

The AAP Wednesday slammed the appointment of former chief justice of India P. Sathasivam as the new governor of Kerala, saying the central government's decision "will set a wrong precedent".

"Appointment of Justice Sathasivam as governor would give governments an instrument to subvert the independence of judiciary, which would dent the credibility of the institutions," the Aam Aadmi Party said in a statement.

This is for the first when a retired chief justice of India has been appointed governor of a state.

"The BJP-led government may justify the appointment on the ground that it does not violate set procedures, but it compromises independence of the judiciary," the AAP said.

The Congress too has criticised the decision of the BJP-led government, and questioned the move to appoint Sathasivam who earlier had rejected the second first information report against BJP president Amit Shah in the Tulsiram Prajapati case in April 2013.

According to the Central Bureau of Investigation, gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh, who allegedly had links to terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba, and his wife Kauser Bi were abducted by Gujarat's Anti-Terrorism Squad when they were on way from Hyderabad to Sangli in Maharashtra and killed in an alleged shootout near Gandhinagar in November 2005.

Tulsiram Prajapati, a witness to the incident, was killed by police at Chapri village in Banaskantha district of Gujarat in December 2006, CBI said.

According to the CBI, Amit Shah, who was then minister of state for home, was allegedly involved in the conspiracy behind both the incidents.