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