Ahmedabad:
After three months in Sabarmati jail, former Gujarat Minister and Narendra Modi's right-hand man for long, Amit Shah, walked out on bail today
. (Read: Who is Amit Shah)
Shah was arrested by the CBI in connection with the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case on July 25. He had challenged the rejection of his bail plea by a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court last month, in the Gujarat High Court, which ruled in favour.
(Read: Who was Sohrabuddin Sheikh?)His lawyer Niranjan Nanavati said the court had asked Shah to mark his presence at the Mumbai CBI office every month.
In his petition before the High Court, Shah had alleged that the CBI had framed him and there was no evidence to implicate him in the case.
The CBI counsel KTS Tulsi had, during the hearing, submitted that Shah was the mastermind in the fake encounter case and was also part of a larger extortion racket.
Shah has been charged with a number of crimes, including murder. Sohrabuddin,an alleged gangster, was killed on the outskirts of Ahmedabad inNovember 2005, in a staged shoot-out by Gujarat and Rajasthan Police.Later, his wife Kauser Bi was also murdered.
"We have always maintained and believe that Amit Shah's case was of no evidence and we are happy that the High Court has accepted his bail application," said Tarun Vijay, BJP Spokesman.
Bail for Shah is a blow to the CBI that now fears, he will be free to influence witnesses and destroy evidence.
Also the agency's grip on the 14 top cops - behind bars in the same case - seems to be weakening. Shah's bail can become the ground for similar bail pleas.
For the Congress this is the second setback in Gujarat in a fortnight. Using Shah's arrest as a plank in the local body election, Modi trounced the Congress. Now, the Congress can only defend.
"When they got a clean chit in the Haren Pandya case, the CBI was fine but in the Amit Shah case, it's not fine," said Manish Tewari, Congress Spokesperson.
At the start of the monsoon session of Parliament if the BJP was on the backfoot due to Shah's arrest, the party is going to use the bail order to corner the government in the winter session that begins next month.
In the days to come lots of politics would be seen over the issue and also a continuation of the legal battle, with the CBI expected to challenge this in the Supreme Court.