Tulsi in the initially stages of the case, had appeared for the Gujarat government.
A bench of Justice Aftab Alam and Justice RM Lodha said while dealing with a special leave petition filed by CBI against a Gujarat High Court order granting bail to Gujarat’s former Minister of state for Home Amit Shah.
Earlier the High Court had granted bail to Amit Shah, in connection with his alleged involvement in the fake encounter of Sohrabuddin and his wife Kausar Bi in November 2005 in a joint operation by Gujarat Police and Rajasthan Police.
Sohrabuddin case: SC refuses to consider sting operation
The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to take on record contents of a sting operation which allegedly showed that CBI pressurised witnesses in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case to implicate former Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah.
A bench of Justices Aftab Alam and R M Lodha expressed reservation in considering the sting operation as a piece of evidence, noting there was enough material already before the court to decide the case.
Amit Shah told the apex court that the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) accusing him of being involved in Soharabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case was based on fabricated evidence and the court should take note of it.
The apex court was told this when senior counsel Ram Jethmalani appearing for Amit Shah sought to bring on record the transcript of a sting operation by a news channel in which Sohrabuddin’s brother Nayimuddin had allegedly said that he did not name Amit Shah in his statement before the investigating agency.
Nayimuddin in the said sting operation allegedly said that he has not named Amit Shah in his statement before the CBI and the investigating agency added that on its own.
“In Amit Shah’s matter, no one has sought my help”, Nayimuddin reportedly said in the sting operation by a TV news channel.
As Jethmalani pressed for taking the transcript and accompanying affidavit on the record, the court declined to accept saying “there is already so much of material on record why are you burdening it further with another document.”
While saying that for the time being it would reserve it order on the plea to take the document on record, Justice Alam wondered to what extent we (court) can rely on the sting operation was doubtful.
Justice Lodha said that, “this matter is pending for a long time. We are concerned with the (plea for the cancellation of) bail matter. This man (Amit shah) is not allowed to enter the State. There is no end to evidence. Evidence will keep on cropping.”
Jethmalani said that what had surfaced in the sting operation, if it was true, then entire charge-sheet against former Gujarat Minister goes.
On October 29, 2010, High court granted him bail but very next day CBI moved apex court seeking the cancellation of bail. The apex court while keeping the CBI plea pending directed Amit Shah to stay away from the Gujarat and the situation continues till date.
The CBI in its appeal has said that Shah and a police officer Abhay Chudasama “while in judicial custody conspired with some Gujarat police officers to destroy the crucial evidence and to shield the accused from the law.”
The police had claimed that Sohrabuddin had links with Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT).