Amit Shah can enter Gujarat: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court Thursday lifted its order restraining former Gujarat minister for state of home Amit Shah - an accused in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh staged shootout case - from entering the state. It also shifted the case outside Gujarat.

The apex court bench of Justice Aftab Alam and Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, however, transferred the trial in Sohrabuddin and his wife Kausar Bi killing case outside Gujarat.

Pronouncing a brief order, Justice Alam said the CBI plea against the grant of bail to Amit Shah by Gujarat High Court is dismissed. However, the plea for the transfer of trial outside the state is allowed.

The apex court had by declining the CBI plea to stay the high court order of granting bail to Shah, in December 2010, directed him to keep off the territorial limits of Gujarat till it decides the plea against the bail.

Meanwhile, the court also shifted the 2005 Sohrabuddin Sheikh shootout case outside Gujarat.

The apex court bench of Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Prakash Desai transferred the trial in the killings of Sohrabuddin, his wife Kausar Bi and his aide Tulsiram Prajapati outside Gujarat. Pronouncing the brief order, Justice Alam said the CBI plea against bail to Amit Shah by the Gujarat High Court was dismissed. However, the plea for the transfer of the trial outside the state was allowed.

The apex court had by declining the CBI plea to stay the high court order of granting bail to Shah, in December 2010, directed him to keep off the territorial limits of Gujarat till it decides the plea against the bail.

The court had earlier in the course of the hearing offered senior counsel Ram Jethmalani the choice between his client Shah coming back to Gujarat and the trial being transferred outside the state or he staying away and the trial continuing in the state.

In the course of the next hearing, the CBI had alleged that Shah was the head of the extortion syndicate in Gujarat.

The investigating agency had said the killing of Sohrabuddin and his wife Kausar Bi and that of Tulsiram Prajapati were a part of the same conspiracy. Sohrabuddin was killed by Gujarat Police Nov 25, 2005, in a staged shootout. Two days later, Kausar Bi was killed. Prajapati, his aide, was killed Dec 28, 2006.

Shah was in the Gujarat cabinet when the killing took place.

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