Sohrabuddin case: 2 ex-top cops turn against Amit Shah

AHMEDABAD: A day after he was arrested for murder and conspiracy in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi's close associate Amit Shah suffered a serious setback with two policemen agreeing to help CBI nail him.

Former DSP N K Amin, a co-accused in the case who fell out with Shah and is believed to have loads of information which could be dangerous for the former Gujarat home minister, told the CBI court of his decision to turn approver.

In a similar development, G C Raiger, former Additional DGP, turned a CBI witness after a session with officers of the central agency where he passed on "explosive information" to them. Raiger looked after the CID probe into the Sohrabuddin case before Supreme Court handed over the inquiry to CBI.

Amin's lawyers moved an application in the CBI court seeking pardon for him and for shifting to another jail for safety reasons.

A testimony by the former DSP, who featured in several encounters and acquired the reputation of a tough cop, incriminating Shah could severely undercut the former home minister's protestations of innocence.

What Shah and his colleagues should be particularly wary of is a statement confirming CBI's charge that Sohrabuddin's encounter was a fallout of Shah's alleged involvement in an extortion syndicate comprising Gujarat cops.

A corroboration of the accusation by Amin and other cops would undercut Modi's attempt to portray Shah as a victim of political frame-up and his assertion that Sohrabuddin was eliminated purely because he was a dreaded gangster wanted for several heinous crimes in many states.

Amin and Shah had telephone conversations 32 times during the week preceding the twin killings of Sohrabuddin and his wife Kauserbi in November 2005. BJP has claimed that the high frequency of calls does not prove anything by itself since Shah's job as a "hands-on" home minister required him to be in touch with cops handling sensitive assignments.

CBI is hamstrung by the fact that it does not have details of what transpired between Modi's close associate and Amin. The former DSP, however, can turn the screws on him by helping the agency fill in the gaps in its case against Shah.

Moreover, Amin was tasked with probing the fake encounter case. Though his role as investigator ended with his arrest in the same case, he obviously knows a lot, including about Shah's role.

The CBI knew it had hit bulls-eye when, during the search of Amin's home earlier this year, it found an audio recording of a conversation which has become a critical evidence against Shah. Amin, it is suspected, has more such documented evidence against plotters and executors of the plan to eliminate Sohrabuddin, Kauserbi and Tulsidas Prajapati.

Amin's move does not come as a surprise. His estrangement with other accused in the case has been evident since 2007 when he was was sent to jail. Appearing to resent his imprisionment when other "culprits" remained free, Amin hinted on a number of occasions that he could turn approver. In fact, in an affidavit filed before a sessions court in 2009, he had threatened to "expose people who were not named in the case so far". He had claimed to have enough evidence in form of voice recordings to nail people who were involved in the murder.

This suggests that his move on Monday was well thought-out and that he had fully factored in consequences, including retaliation by the co-accused.

"There is a threat to Amin's life from the other accused as all are lodged together in Sabarmati central jail here. So we have decided to move an application for jail transfer," Amin's advocate Rajesh Modi said.

Additional chief judicial magistrate A I Rawal has fixed a hearing for Tuesday afternoon.

A doctor by profession before he joined the Gujarat police, Amin was a close friend of VHP leader Pravin Togadia, as the two studied medicine at around the same time in Ahmedabad.