Blatant
misuse of CBI by the BJP’s central government to save its national president
·
Why did the CBI not appoint a special
public prosecutor to oppose Amit Shah’s discharge application in a Mumbai court
?· Why did the investigating agency not mention key facts of the case in its application to oppose Shah’s discharge application ?
· Why did it conceal the fact that Shah was the key conspirator and main accused as per its own chargesheet filed in court ?
· CBI counsel merely argued for 15 minutes as against Shah’s arguments which continued for three days.
· The lackadaisical approach of the CBI in Amit Shah’s case raises very serious questions on the functioning of the premier investigation agency
· CBI is being misused and manipulated to erase the criminal past of BJP president Amit Shah
A sinister conspiracy is underway to let BJP
national president Amit Shah off the hook in the ongoing case of the
cold-blooded murders of Sohrabuddin, his wife Kauser Bi and Tulsiram Prajapati
who was a crucial eye- witness to their abductions.
Under Mr Ranjit Sinha, the CBI filed an extremely limp
submission in response to Amit Shah’s discharge application before the Special
CBI judge in Mumbai. The submission was made before his retirement.
Even under the new CBI director the CBI has
fashioned its arguments to provide Amit Shah escape passage from the ongoing criminal
trial.
Shockingly,
the CBI has till date not appointed a special public prosecutor in the
Sohrabuddin-Tulsiram case.
On 15 December, the CBI counsel argued for just 15
minutes in response to three days of vigorous arguments by Amit Shah’s legal
team as to why Shah should not stand trial in the triple murder case which also
includes allegations of rape and extortion.
CBI
did not oppose the permanent exemption granted to Amit Shah by the CBI court earlier
this year. Also the agency has not gone into an appeal against the bail granted
to other accused police officers including former Gujarat ATS DIG DG Vanzara.
The trenchant refusal of the BJP government to sack
Ranjit Sinha from the post of CBI director despite damning evidence of
corruption against him had baffled many.
Now the information procured by the Aam Aadmi Party
reveals that under Ranjit Sinha the CBI presented an extremely weak case
against former Gujarat minister of state for home, Amit Shah, the prime accused
in the killings of Sohrabuddin and Tulsiram Prajapati before the Special CBI
court in Mumbai.
In its submission before the court the CBI sang a
different tune than it had been maintaining all along. Earlier in its chargesheets the CBI
had called Shah as the lynchpin of the conspiracy to eliminate the three victims.
The CBI had also accused Shah of being the kingpin of an extortion racket he
operated in league with certain police officers of the Gujarat police and gangsters
like Sohrabuddin.
The killing of Sohrabuddin was a result of the
extortion business run by Shah, as per the CBI chargesheets. CBI had also
accused Shah of ordering the killings of kauser Bi and Tuliram Prajapati who
were crucial eyewitnesses to the abduction and illegal detention of
Sohrabuddin. Shah had allegedly shuffled the police officers around just days
before Prajapati was gunned down. The transfers were affected so that Shah’s
henchmen could be deployed in critical position from where then they carried
out the killing of Prajapati who was threatening to reveal the full truth.
The CBI at every stage of the investigation and at
every forum had asserted that the conspiracy began and ended with Shah. The
agency also accused him of obstructing the investigation and destroying
critical evidence. Shah had allegedly ordered the abduction of a crucial
witness while the former was in judicial custody. To support its case the CBI
had recorded statements of several eyewitnesses which include senior Gujarat
police officers, businessmen and members of the Sohrabuddin gang.
Some of these statements were recorded before a judicial
magistrate making them admissible in a court of law. Besides the agency had
cited documentary and circumstantial evidence like Shah’s cellphone records.
A few months back Shah filed a 150 page long
discharge application in the CBI court. One would have reasonably expected the
CBI to vigorously present its case against Shah and oppose his application through
vehement arguments. In the first and second weeks of December the counsels for
Amit Shah argued for 3 days and made a case that Shah should be discharged
without facing the trial.
In
response, shockingly the CBI counsel argued for just 15 minutes. The essence of
CBI’s arguments were that the credibility and veracity of statements of
witnesses cannot be decided at this stage and the same is the matter of trial
when witnesses will depose before the trial judge.
Further, the CBI didn’t spell out the central role
of Shah in the conspiracy that the agency had earlier made in its chargesheets
and status reports submitted before the Supreme Court. The CBI presented Shah like any other accused
in the case and not the prime conspirator that he has been shown as in the case
papers. The agency didn’t even lay out the body of evidence against Shah.
The CBI arguments were merely technical and
superficial in nature. The conduct of the agency raises serious questions about
its independence autonomy. A wishy-washy approach against Shah leads to suspicion
of an insidious conspiracy between the govt and the CBI to let Shah off the
hook. The Special CBI court has reserved
December 30 as the date to pass its order in Shah’s discharge application.
·
CBI autonomy has been a matter of fierce
debate in the country during past few years.· BJP in the past had accused the agency of being the Congress Bureau of Investigation and had promised to make it free of political meddling
· The AAP will raise the issue at every forum to prevent the country’s premier investigating agency from being compromised. (ENDS)
(Pls find attached Hindi Press Release also.)
Regards.
AAP Media Cell
