Centre protests against Shah’s affidavit in SC naming PM

New Delhi: Former Gujarat minister and Sohrabuddin fake encounter accused Amit Shah on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that PM Manmohan Singh’s recent televised statement on the case indicated the Centre’s influence over the investigating agency, the CBI.
“The PM publicly stated that the BJP is hostile towards central government because it arrested one minister of Gujarat government...I respectfully submit that it is high time that the Supreme Court examines the conduct, integrity, credibility and impartiality of CBI,” Shah’s affidavit said.
This drew loud protests from additional solicitor general Indira Jaising, who requested a Bench comprising Justices Aftab Alam and R M Lodha to direct the petitioner to withdraw the affidavit along with a book annexed to it.
“How does the government respond to assertions made on the basis of press clippings and a book?” asked Jaising. The Bench agreed with her as far as the book, authored by a former CBI official B R Lall and titled ‘CBI: The Naked Truth’, and asked Shah’s counsel Ram Jethmalani to withdraw it.
Jethmalani agreed to withdraw the book but remained firm on keeping on record the affidavit. He said, “The Prime Minister made a remark publically naming my client. That is why I said the CBI is acting at the behest of the central government.”
These remarks came on a petition filed by Sohrabuddin’s brother Rubabuddin, who was present in the court on Wednesday, on which the court in January last year had entrusted the probe to CBI.
The CBI in its status reports to the court had sought permission to probe the encounter killing of Tulsiram Prajapati, alleged to have been the sole eye witness to the abduction of Sohrabuddin and his wife Kausar Bi. It had also sought transfer of the trial outside the state alleging that Shah was influential enough to subvert a fair trial.