Amit Shah

For mayor of Ahmedabad, see Amit Shah (mayor).

Amit Shah (born 1964) is a Bharatiya politician and former minister from Gujarat, member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He is currently under judicial bail as the prime accused for kidnapping and murder of Sohrabuddin Shaikh, his wife Kauserbi and their friend Tulsiram Prajapati. The Supreme Court has directed that while his bail is under challenge, he is not permitted to enter his home state of Gujarat where he may influence the investigations.

Life

Shah's father, Anilchandra Shah was a wealthy businessman. Shah worked as a stockbroker for some time. During this period he joined the BJP and came close to L K Advani. He managed several of Advani's election campaigns from the Gandhinagar (Lok Sabha constituency). He was then appointed Chairman of The Gujarat State Finance Corporation Limited, the youngest person in this post. He was later appointed chairman of the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank.

In 2003. after the BJP won a second term, Narendra Modi inducted Shah as the youngest minister in the cabinet, and gave him an unprecedented ten portfolios. This included the Home ministry, which looks after the police apparatus in the state. He quickly emerged as Modi’s right-hand man in the new party. In 2004, with the central government about to repeal the repressive Prevention of Terrorism Act, he piloted the Gujarat Control of Organised Crime (Amendment) Bill through parliament amid an opposition walk-out.

In April 2009, after the arrest of state police chief Abhay Chudasama on charges of extortion and murder, Shah’s arrest seemed imminent and he stopped attending office. Subsequently, when the CBI did summon him, he was not traceable for a few days.

Role in Sohrabuddin Shaikh killing

Main article: Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter

On 11 June 2005, Sohrabuddin Shaikh, a known criminal who is claimed to have been running an extortion racket along with police chief Abhay Chudasama"Who was Sohrabuddin Sheikh?". NDTV. July 23, 2010. http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/who-was-sohrabuddin-sheikh-39280.  Quote: After the arrest of senior IPS officer Abhay Chudasama in the case a few months ago, the CBI alleged that the policeman ran an extortion racket with Sohrabuddin Sheikh</ref>, was killed by the state police in what the Gujarat state has admitted to be a staged encounter. His wife Kauser Bi and later, witness to the abduction, Tulsi Prajapati, were also killed. Initial investigations by the Criminal Investigation Department of the state police indicted senior police officers who were reporting to Shah, including Chudasama and Vanzara, who have been arrested. Evidence built up that these officers may not have been working on their own, and after charges of a cover-up, the Supreme Court of India ordered the investigation to be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Indian Police Service officers D G Vanzara, Rajkumar Pandian, Abhay Chudasama, Dinesh M N, and eight other policemen are under arrest in the case. D G Vanzara was known to be close to Narendra Modi, who holds the home ministry, and allegedly transferred him across several posts so that the series of killings could be orchestrated. It appears that the Sohrabuddin Shaikh case may be part of possibly 21 other fake encounter killings under the Narendra Modi ministry.

While handing over the case to the CBI, the state CID had deleted evidence of phone calls linking Amit Shah in the case; ex-DGP OP Mathur, currently the director of the newly-created Raksha Shakti University of police sciences, has been indited for this criminal deletion of evidence. After the original records revealed that Amit Shah had made 331 calls to Vanzara and other police officers around that time, he was named as the prime accused in the case.

Court case

Noted criminal lawyer Ram Jethmalani will be representing Amit Shah in the case. Others in the team include Congress affiliated criminal lawyer Nirupam Nanavati.

Shah has been charged with murder, kidnapping and extortion. During his questioning, he apparently claimed loss of memory on most questions.

Amit Shah is the second minister under Narendra Modi to be arrested; earlier Maya Kodnani, minister for Women and Child Development, resigned after being arrested on murder charges relating to the 2002 Gujarat riots. BJP has accuses the central government of being vindictive and using CBI against the BJP party.

Gujarat High Court has granted bail to former Gujarat Minister of State for Home Amit shah in Sohrabuddin fake encounter case as on 29.10.2010 2.45 afternoon. Earlier, Amit Shah had filed a bail petition in the special CBI court in Ahmadabad but it was rejected. Later, Shah challenged the decision of special CBI court in Gujarat High Court. Following this, the CBI has approached the Supreme Court to cancel bail granted by the High Court on the charge that he could tamper with the evidences, on which Amit Shah was asked to leave Gujarat while his bail petition challenge was in court. Shah left for Mumbai following the Supreme Court order, and is thought to be presently in Delhi.

In February, the prime minister Manmohan Singh, during a comment on the delay in introducing a bill in parliament hinted that BJP may have been blackmailing the government by adopting a hostile approach and obstructing the political process, in order to benefit Amit Shah:

"In private... they say you have taken a decision against a person, who was a minister in Gujarat. You must reverse it or... I don't want to add further."

The CBI has also been arguing before the Supreme Court that the Tulsi Prajapati murder was also ordered by Shah and that the case should be transferred out of Gujarat where it may be subject to interference.