Amit Shah in jail, doesn't say much to CBI

Gandhinagar: Former Gujarat minister Amit Shah was on Sunday evening remanded to 13-day judicial custody after two days interrogation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the 2005 killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh in a staged shootout.

His questioning, which began on Saturday, continued on Sunday after the former minister spent the night in the CBI lockup here. It ended at 6.30 p.m. after which he was produced before CBI special judge A Y Dave at his residence.

The judge remanded him to judicial custody till August 21. According to sources, the minister continued to remain evasive in his replies during the questioning though his lawyer, Yatin Oza, described this as "baseless" and asserted that Shah had fully cooperated with his interrogators.

While the administration has been taking full care of Shah's comforts within the Sabarmati Jail where he had been kept after his arrest by the CBI July 25 and judicial remand thereafter, the former minister spent Saturday night in the fanless CBI lock up in its regional office in Sector-10 here.

This is the same lock up where one time deputy commissioner of police Abhay Chudasama was kept during his remand period. In the morning, Shah was brought to the CBI camp office in the old secretariat here for further questioning. Perhaps for the first time in years, a panting former minister was forced to climb four flights of stairs to reach up to the venue of his ordeal.

Sources in the CBI said the minister, who had faced a barrage of over 300 questions Saturday, underwent a near similar questioning on Sunday. His lawyers, who were present though at a distance, said they had no complaints with regard to the questioning.

Though answering largely in monosyllables or at best with "I don't remember", the former minister was asked searching questions about the orders he issued in relation to the transfer of the key police officers who are now his co-accused, his mobile conversations, 32 times with deputy superintendent of police N K Amin on the day Sohrabuddin's wife Kauserbi is suspected to have been killed, and with other officers during the period, besides conversations with his then Rajasthan counterpart, Gulabchand Kataria.

Sohrabuddin Sheikh was killed by the Gujarat police in a staged shootout Nov 26, 2005 near Ahmedabad and his wife Kauserbi is suspected to have been killed at a farm near here two days later.