Thaindian News

New Delhi, Jan 25 (IANS) The Supreme Court Wednesday said it would hear former Gujarat minister Amit Shah’s plea to be allowed to enter the state along with the CBI petition seeking cancellation of his bail granted by the Gujarat High Court Oct 29, 2010.

An apex court bench of Justice Aftab Alam and Justice C.K. Prasad said this when senior counsel Ram Jethmalani appearing for Shah pleaded for an early hearing on the petition.

Telling the court that Shah had already stayed away from the state for the last 16 months, Jethmalani sought the hearing of his petition either Friday or Monday.

The court expressed its inability to take up the matter so early and said that it would be heard along with the main petition by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seeking the cancellation of bail granted to Shah by the high court.

The CBI plea seeking the cancellation of the bail is being heard by the bench of Justice Alam and Justice R.P. Desai.

The apex court while declining the CBI plea to cancel Shah’s bail Oct 30, 2010 directed him to stay away from Gujarat.

The CBI has named Shah as an accused in the 2005 Sohrabuddin Sheikh staged shootout case.

Shah in his petition said that the case against him was “fabricated solely on political considerations”.

He said it was causing a serious prejudice and unwarranted hardship to him as he was out of the state for 16 months because of which his constituency, Sarkhej in Ahmedabad, from where he was elected to the state assembly for four consecutive terms remained unrepresented.

“A person who is politically active in a democratic public life cannot remain away from his constituency, electorate, voters and workers,” Shah said in his petition.

“A person in public life remaining out of his home state for 16 long months, per se, is nothing less than a punishment more particularly when he is deprived of warmth, support and co-operation of his family members and close relatives who stay in the state of Gujarat,” the petition said.

Shah in his petition said that no purpose would now be served with the ban on his entry into Gujarat.

The petition said that though there were 19 people accused in the charge sheet, the petitioner Rubabuddin Sheikh thought it “fit, proper and expedient” to oppose his bail plea only.

The petition said that Rubabuddin Sheikh did not even appear to oppose the bail plea of other accused in the sessions court, the Gujarat High Court and in the apex court.

Rubabuddin Sheikh is the brother of Sohrabuddin Sheikh who was killed in a staged shootout by Gujarat police in 2005. Shah was in Gujarat cabinet when the killing took place.

Shah was named as an accused in the 2005 Sohrabuddin Sheikh killing in which the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) described him as a head of extortion syndicate in Gujarat. Shah was arrested by the CBI July 25, 2010, for his alleged involvement in Sohrabuddin Sheikh killing.

Shah was granted bail by the high court Oct 29, 2010. The CBI moved the apex court seeking the cancellation of his bail and transfer of the trial in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case outside Gujarat.