Bhavnagar, Gujarat:
For the second time in twelve hours, Narendra Modi has publicly slammed the CBI case against his close aide, Amit Shah, as a political attempt to undermine his government.
In Bhavnagar today , the Gujarat Chief Minister declared, "Give up trying to frighten Narendra Modi. He has not been - and will not be - intimidated."
''This is a fight between the nationalists and the anti-nationalists and the battleground is Gujarat. I am sure Gujarat will win," Modi added.
On Thursday night, he mocked the CBI stating that its members would soon be chosen as Congress candidates for the next elections. " "Given all the activities that have been going on the in the state, I feel that Congress in the state has conceded defeat in the forthcoming municipal elections. "Now Congress will have to field CBI officers as candidates for the local body polls," he said in Ahmedabad on Thursday, adding that "no political game using CBI will bring success in Gujarat".
(Watch: Congress will field CBI candidates next)Shah resigned over the weekend as Minister of State for Home and was arrested for murdering Sohrabuddin Sheikh. The CBI, which is investigating the case, believes that Shah ordered Gujarat's senior-most policemen to eliminate Sohrabuddin because he had become a recurring problem for marble traders in Rajasthan, who were tiredof his extortion attempts. When Sohrabuddin and his wife , Kauser, were killed in November 2005, the Gujarat police bradned Sohrabuddin as a Laskar-e-Taiba member who planned to assassinate Modi.
A state police inquiry said the men who killed the young Muslim hoped to win promotions and rewards by painting it as a successful encounter with a deadly terrorist. But the CBI believes the police officers acted on Shah's orders. An internal CBI report also refers to Narendra Modi, and suggests that the agency may want to question the Chief Minister to determine what he knew about Shah's role.
Since it became clear earlier this month that the CBI was closing in on Amit Shah, the BJP has accused the CBI of serving as an extension of the Congress party. Top BJP leaders rejected an invite to the Prime Minister's house for lunch last week, stating that the atmosphere could not be cordial, given that the CBI was being used by the government to settle political scores.