The state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday accused the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) of acting at the behest of the Central government in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case. The party further said that the UPA government at the Centre was using the CBI to give a bad name to the democratically elected Narendra Modi government of Gujarat.
At a hurriedly called press conference on Sunday, state BJP leaders threatened to launch a statewide agitation against the CBI as it was being misused by the UPA government. The leaders alleged that attempts were being made to demoralise the Gujarat police by arresting and summoning senior IPS officers of the state. Though the fake encounter case was handed over to the CBI four months back, the agency had deliberately chosen the time of Gujarat’s golden jubilee celebrations to make arrests and give the state a bad name, the BJP alleged.
Calling the CBI the ‘Central Bureau of Injustice’, BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP, Vijay Rupani, accused the Central government of hatching a conspiracy to topple the duly elected BJP government in Gujarat. “If the CBI does not stop acting at the behest of the Union government, the BJP will not sit idle,” Rupani said. “We will take the matter to the people by launching a statewide agitation.”
The CBI has arrested deputy commissioner of police Abhay Chudasama in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, and has summoned eight police officers, including four serving IPS officers, for questioning. The CBI took over the probe of the case on the Supreme Court’s orders.
When some journalists at the press conference asked the BJP leaders about the absence of the minister of state for home, Amit Shah, from the recent golden jubilee celebrations, the leaders said they were here to discuss the CBI’s actions.
