CBI pressurized by Central Government: Venkaiah Naidu

NEW DELHI - Reacting to the statement of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh that the Centre has no role has no role to play in the Sohrabuddin case probe, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Venkaiah Naidu on Monday said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has become a political arm of the Central Government.

Naidu said the CBI is under political pressure by the ruling Congress party, and the BJP would expose the Government for taking inadequate action in various other cases as well.

“What we know, yesterday CBI gives clean chit to Jagdish Tytler and then CBI arrests Amit Shah and that too to protect a person Sohrabuddin, as if he is a great national hero Congress want to portray him. We’ll expose the Government,” said Venkaiah Naidu.

“There are umpteen number of cases - Mulayam Singh’s case, Mayawati’s case and also Lalu Prasad Yadav’s case, also earlier Sajjan Kumar’s case. So many cases are there where the CBI has bungled and under political pressure of the Government. We will expose it because the CBI has become a political arm of the Government,” he added.

Naidu further said the BJP is aware of the tactics used by the Congress party, and that their party would be united whenever it is required.

Earlier today, Dr. Manmohan Singh said that there is no truth in the allegation put forward by the BJP that the CBI is the Congress Bureau of Investigation.

“I refute this allegation that the CBI is Congress Bureau of Investigation. The Centre was not misusing the CBI in the former Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah case,” Dr Singh told reporters ahead of the monsoon session of the parliament.

“The Opposition knows that the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case is a part of the Supreme Court directive and we are ready for discussion on any issue, and there are substantive issues to be discussed and legislated,” he added.

A court today adjourned former Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah’s bail plea hearing till August 2 in Sohrabuddin case. Amit Shah had moved for bail in Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.

Shah was sent to 14 days judicial custody on Sunday after he surrendered before the investigating agency.

Shah was first summoned by the CBI to show up on July 22. However, he failed to appear, and the agency issued a second summon with July 23 as the deadline.

Sohrabuddin and his wife were killed in an alleged fake encounter in 2005.

In March 2007, police said Sohrabuddin, belonged to Lashkar-e-Toiba and was planning to assassinate Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to avenge the death of Muslims killed in the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The government also admitted that Sohrabuddin’s innocent wife Kausar Bi had been killed by the police and her body burnt in an attempt to remove traces of the crime.

The Gujarat Government admitted that senior police officers were directly involved in the killing of Sohrabuddin, and his wife, Kausar Bi, in 2005.

The admission came as a result of the intervention of Supreme Court, which ordered investigations into this case.

The CBI took up the case on directions of the Supreme Court. Earlier, the apex court had asked the CBI to probe if there was any larger conspiracy to the killings and submit the report by July 31. (ANI)