Ahmedabad: Gujarat former Home minister Amit Shah, arrested for his alleged role in the killing of suspected gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife in 2005, refrained from giving any direct answer to the questions put to him by CBI officials on Wednesday.
The line of Shah's defence was: "I don't remember. I don't know. I was not present so I was not aware." Wednesday's questions were focussed on state CID investigation and Shorabuddin encounter. The CBI is likely ask the Supreme Court to allow its officials three more months for questioning the accused.
The CBI grilled the former minister for more than four hours inside the Sabarmati jail. A CBI team started interrogating 46-year-old Shah around 11 AM and his quizzing continued till around 3.30 PM. The questioning of Shah, lodged in Tilak barrack of Sabarmati Jail after being arrested last Sunday, is likely to continue on Thursday.
The BJP leader was asked questions pertaining to the kidnapping of Sohrabuddin and his wife Kausar Bi and their killings, political compulsions for conducting the encounter and alleged involvement of Rajasthan marble lobby in it, the sources said.
The CBI team was led by Chief Investigating Officer of the case Amitabh Thakur. The entire questioning process was videographed as per the instruction of the special CBI court, they said.
The court has permitted the investigating agency to question Shah inside the jail from July 28 to 30. As per the charge sheet filed by CBI last week, Shah has been booked for murder, kidnapping, extortion, destruction of evidence and criminal conspiracy, among other charges.
According to the charge sheet, the police officials of Gujarat ATS and Rajasthan Special Task Force (STF) had allegedly stage managed the encounter of Sohrabuddin near Ahmedabad.
Shah had allegedly entrusted the job of eliminating Sohrabuddin to three senior IPS officers -- D G Vanzara, Rajkumar Pandiyan and Abhay Chudasama, the CBI document claimed.
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