Gandhinagar, July 23: Gujarat”s junior Home Minister Amit Shah, a close aide of Narendra Modi, today sought more time to appear before the CBI for questioning in connection with the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case but his plea was turned down by the probe agency.
Shah was given time till 1 PM today to appear before the CBI after second summons was sent to him yesterday when he did not respond to the first summons to show up before the agency. Shah”s lawyer Mitish Amin, who went to the CBI office here, said a request was made to the agency to request for more time and consider the option of handing a questionnaire to the Minister to respond to their questions.
However, CBI has turned down the request to give a questionnaire, Amin said.”They do not think that they need to give a questionnaire to us,” Amin told reporters after coming out of CBI office.”Now, I will discuss this with him (Shah),” Amin said.Asked what were the legal options available with him, Amin said, “There are many legal options available to Shah and one of them is anticipatory bail. But I will discuss the matter with my client and decide about the further course of action”.
Earlier, before going inside the CBI office Amin had said, “The way he (Shah) has got the summon and he was asked to come for deposition, we feel that the time was too short”.”We will ask the CBI to give the questionnaire as the incident is very old,” Amin said.”We are willing to cooperate but the time given to Shah was less. The way he has got the summons and was asked to come for deposition, we feel that the time was too less,” Amin said. .
——–PTI