Jethmalani rebuts CBI ‘call’ claim

Jethmalani rebuts CBI ‘call’ claim

The Sohrabuddin fake encounter case took another interesting turn in the Supreme Court on Tuesday with former Gujarat Minister Amit Shah revealing that phone calls made by him to one of the police officers in the crack team was in relation to a kidnapping case seeking help of police and not to do with Sohrabuddin.

The disclosure came as part of Shah’s arguments opposing CBI’s plea to cancel his bail. The agency had produced a detailed set of call records showing several phone calls made by Shah to suspended DSP Narendra K Amin, who is also an accused in the crime.

Appearing for Shah, senior advocate Ram Jethmalani added a twist to the CBI tale by stating that his client spoke with Amin in relation to a boy’s kidnapping. He rebutted the CBI claim that the calls by Shah were in relation to conspiracy to eliminate Sohrabuddin by pointing out that Amin was then heading the Cyber Cell of Gujarat Police and it was in this regard he sought the officer’s help to track the child.

But the bench of Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Desai was not convinced. It said, “There is too much of a coincidence” supporting the evidentiary value of the phone call records collected by CBI between November 22 and November 30, 2005.

But Jethmalani doubted CBI claim on yet another premise that the CBI was unable to establish whether the content of calls made by Shah related to Sohrabuddin case. Drawing a parallel between his client and Parliament attack accused SAR Geelani, the senior lawyer argued that Geelani too was accused on basis of phone calls made to his phone by the other accused. But ultimately, both High Court and Supreme Court let him off finding the evidence insufficient to prosecute him.

Jethmalani further warned that while Gujarat is the state with least number of reported fake encounter deaths, the Court should not lose sight of the fact that Sohrabuddin was a dreaded criminal. But the bench felt that this fact alone was not a justification for fake encounters. The arguments will continue on Wednesday.