The Supreme Court Monday issued notices to Narendra Modi’s close aide Amit Shah and other accused in the 2005 Sohrabuddin Sheikh alleged fake encounter case on a plea by the CBI to transfer certain documents from Gujarat to a Maharashtra court. The court sought replies within four weeks. Shah was arrested by the CBI in July 2010 in connection with the case and he spent over three months in jail before being granted bail by the apex court. Besides Shah, D G Vanzara and R K Pandiyan — both Gujarat cadre IPS officers — and Dinesh M N, a Rajasthan cadre IPS officer, are accused in the case. N K Ameen, the then DSP with the Gujarat Police, is also an accused in the case. All of them except Shah are in jail. The apex court, on September 27, 2012, had ordered the transfer of the Sheikh encounter case to Maharashtra after the CBI alleged that witnesses were being intimidated and contended that trial cannot be held in a free and fair manner in Gujarat. Sheikh and his wife Kauser Bi were allegedly abducted by Gujarat’s Anti-Terrorist Squad from Hyderabad and killed in a fake encounter near Gandhinagar in November 2005.
