Amit Shah: After CBI booked me, I became prisoner from minister instantly, a Congress lawyer fought my case

“Congress filed a case against me through CBI and threw me in jail. Obviously, it was a tough time for me. I was the minister of jails five minutes ago and five minutes later, I was one of the prisoners in a jail,” Shah said.

“Rarely one would have met such a fate. God would never have bestowed such good fortune on anyone in this world. But I had it,” he added.

After his arrest, Shah said, it was Nirupam – one of the top lawyers in Gujarat and Divyakant’s son – who helped defend him in the two encounter cases, including the alleged fake encounter of Tulsiram Prajapati.

Shah said that after his arrest, “some lawyer friends were discussing names of Gujarat’s good lawyers who knew criminal law”.

“Naturally, Nirupambhai’s name figured in the discussion. But two-three of us, who were discussing this, thought that Nirupambhai has served as general secretary of Congress, has been a Congress leader and also has a Congress background. Would he fight this case (of mine)? Everyone responded negatively. My mind also said that he won’t. But then, I thought, what is the harm in inquiring? I thought I should ask him. Hence, a friend talked to him on my behalf and to our surprise, Nirupambhai agreed to fight the case… Not only did he agree to fight but he fought the case and helped win it in the Supreme Court,” he added.

Praising the senior advocate, Shah said the only reason Nirupam agreed to fight his case was because, being a Congressman, Nirupam knew that he had been wrongly implicated in the case. “I am forgetting the name of the Delhi hotel where we were dining and I asked for the reason and he said, ‘I know that my friends in Congress have entrapped you… this is the reason I am fighting the case’,” Shah said as Nirupam, who was seated on the dais with him, looked on.

“There can be no bigger example of professionalism than this,” said Shah, who is on a two-day tour of his home state of Gujarat.

Shah was arrested by the CBI in July 2010 in the alleged fake encounter of ‘gangster’ Sohrabuddin Sheikh. Shah, who had stepped down as MoS home in the Gujarat government led by Modi a couple of days before his arrest, was charged with murder in the case.

He was later charged in the alleged fake encounter of Tulsiram Prajapati, who according to the CBI, had witnessed Sohrabuddin’s encounter. Shah was discharged in the case in December 2014 by the special CBI court in Mumbai, with the court ruling there was no evidence against him.

Nirupam is the elder son of Divyakant, who was elected MLA from Junagadh twice and had also served as president of the Junagadh municipality. While Divyakant had served as Gujarat’s law minister in the 1970s, Nirupam had served as the state Congress general secretary in the 1980s.

In his address, Shah praised late Divyakant Nanavaty, saying he must have done good deeds and that was the reason people still remember him 100 years after his birth. He added that the Congress leader was instrumental in bringing pucca roads and streelights to Junagadh.

Nirupam is also the incumbent president of Rupayatan, which runs a residential school for the poor and also a Bal Bhavan. The NGO was founded by Ratubhai Adani, a close relative of Mahatma Gandhi and a freedom fighter who also served as Gujarat Congress chief in the 1970s. He used to run it with his wife Kusum Gandhi, who was from the Gandhi family. Divyakant had taken over from the Adanis in 1994-95.

The book lauched on Saturday has been compiled by Hemant Nanavaty, Nirupam’s younger brother and managing trustee of Rupayatan, as well as Ramesh Mehta and Dhiren Avashiya. “It is a compilation of speeches made by Divyakant Nanavaty on the floor of Gujarat Assembly and articles about him written by family, friends and his well-wishers,” Hemant said.