CBI likely to seek 'jail & trial outside Gujarat' for Amit Shah

AHMEDABAD: The Central Bureau of Investigation is likely to seek not only imprisonment of outgoing minister of state for home Amit Shah in a jail outside Gujarat, it is also determined to get the trial of the Sohrabuddin-Kauserbi killing shifted outside the state.

Shah has been on the run for the last three days, attempting to evade arrest till Monday when his lawyers will probably move an anticipatory bail application before the Gujarat High Court.

The arrest will happen sooner or later and, after a period in CBI custody, the investigating agency plans to move the court with a request that a person who had himself been the jail, home and law minister should be imprisoned outside the state so that he is not able to influence the case.

Not only that, the CBI is reported to have taken the Best Bakery line to get the case transfered outside Gujarat.

With the Supreme Court monitoring the case, they may just happen, as there is already the precedent of the Best Bakery and Bilkis Bano cases of 2002 riots which got moved to Mumbai.

If this happens, this would be further blow to the legal prospects of Shah who could be in for a long period of rather uncomfortable incarceration.

Police officers D G Vanzara and others have spent nearly 40 months in jail and their bail applications have been denied at every level because they were seen to be powerful enough to influence the case.

In the chargesheet that was filed on Friday, CBI has clearly stated that Shah has tried to influence witnesses in the fake encounter case and this argument, supported by evidence, is likely to be presented to the SC for the transfer of the case outside Gujarat.