Shah seeks time to appear before CBI, agency turns down plea

Gujarat's junior Home Minister Amit Shah, a close aide of Narendra Modi, on Friday sought more time to appear before the CBI for questioning in connection with the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case but his plea was turned down by the probe agency.

Shah was given time till 1 PM on Friday to appear before the CBI after second summons was sent to him on Thursday when he did not respond to the first summons to show up before the agency.

Shah's lawyer Mitish Amin, who went to the CBI office, said a request was made to the agency to request for more time and consider the option of handing a questionnaire to the Minister to respond to their questions.

However, CBI has turned down the request to give a questionnaire, Amin said.

"They do not think that they need to give a questionnaire to us," Amin told reporters after coming out of CBI office.

"Now, I will discuss this with him (Shah)," Amin said. Asked what were the legal options available with him, Amin said,

"There are many legal options available to Shah and one of them is anticipatory bail. But I will discuss the matter with my client and decide about the further course of action".

Earlier, before going inside the CBI office Amin had said, "The way he (Shah) has got the summon and he was asked to come for deposition, we feel that the time was too short.

"We will ask the CBI to give the questionnaire as the incident is very old," Amin said. "We are willing to cooperate but the time given to Shah was less. The way he has got the summons and was asked to come for deposition, we feel that the time was too less," Amin said.

Amit Shah had said in a statement yesterday that he would appear before the CBI today. Shah was summoned twice by the CBI. The first summons was issued yesterday morning asking him to appear before the investigating agency by 1 pm but he did not turn up.

He was then summoned for the second time by the CBI yesterday afternoon asking him to appear before them before 1 pm today. Sheikh, an alleged gangster, was killed in an "encounter" by Gujarat Police near here in November 2005.

CBI took over the investigation into the case and the mysterious murder of his wife Kausar Bi in January last on the direction of the Supreme Court. The CBI has arrested DCP Abhay Chudasama, who become the fourth IPS officer to be arrested in the fake encounter case.

Earlier, state CID investigating the case had arrested D G Vanzara and Rajkumar Pandian, both IPS officers of Gujarat cadre and Dinesh M N, IPS from Rajasthan in the fake encounter case along with 10 other policemen.

The CBI has also demanded from state CID to hand over documents related to Tulsi Prajapati encounter case as they believe that Tulsi was a key witness in the alleged fake encounter of Soharabuddin.

However, state CID swinging into action has arrested IPS officer Vipul Agarawal and three others in the Tulsi Prajapati encounter case.