Popular Builders firing case: CBI submits its version in HC

AHMEDABAD: CBI has told the Gujarat high court that the Popular Builders firing case is cooked up by Gujarat police. All witnesses in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case have been falsely implicated by the police in this case, CBI said.

The CBI has told the high court that the incident took place at the behest of some police officers and former junior home minister Amit Shah was also involved in the episode and extorted a huge amount from the owners of Popular Builders - Dashrat and Raman Patel. CBI has been maintaining this in its two chargesheets filed in the encounter case. Before the Supreme Court, CBI had sought probe in this case along with the Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter case. The second case has already been handed over to the central agency now.

After submitting its version of the offence that is precursor to the two fake encounters, CBI also requested the high court to hand over the investigations to it in the interest of justice. The high court has kept further proceedings in this regard in first week of May, after the SC hears a case in this connection.

The development took place last week during the hearing of a petition filed through advocate Hashim Qureshi by Ramjan Hanifbhai Qureshi, who is one of the persons accused in the firing incident. He is seeking his discharge from the case.

Qureshi has sought discharge on the ground that the case was a got up story by Gujarat police at the behest of the former minister to trick Sohrabuddin Sheikh into this offence. He had contended that CBI's chargesheet in the fake encounter case suggested that this firing incident is connected with the fake encounter case. Hence they should be clubbed together for trial. The high court permitted the petitioner to rope in CBI in the proceedings.