The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Centre to respond to an allegation by former Gujarat home minister Amit Shah that his implication in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case is part of a diabolical political conspiracy. A Bench comprising Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Prakash Desai asked the government to respond to Shahs argument that he became a pawn in the Centres efforts to use the CBI to destabilise the Modi government in Gujarat. Senior advocate Ram Jethmalani also levelled accusations against the January 12,2010,order transferring the encounter case to the CBI,saying it was passed by a Supreme Court bench in which one of the judges (Justice Tarun Chatterjee,now retired) was at the time under the CBI scanner in connection with the Uttar Pradesh Provident Fund case. The court was hearing a petition filed by the CBI challenging the Gujarat High Courts order granting bail to Shah.
