The discharge by a Mumbai special court of Bharatiya Janata Party president and former Gujarat Minister Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case is a boost for the BJP and a setback to the Central Bureau of Investigation, which seems unable to live down its reputation as an agency that is ever eager to please its political bosses. With the judge of the Special CBI Court, M.B.
Gosavi, ruling that there was substance in the defence argument that the case was foisted on Mr. Shah for political reasons, the CBI will have a tough time recovering its credibility as the country’s premier criminal investigation agency. That the judge decided to discharge Mr. Shah from the case, and saw no need for him to go on trial, says a lot about the nature of the evidence put together by the CBI. Not only was the agency’s mode of investigation faulted, but political motives were attributed to its actions. However, if the CBI framed Mr. Shah in the case for political reasons to please the previous Congress-led government at the Centre, then could it have made out a “weak case” against Mr. Shah to please the present BJP-led government? After all, Mr. Shah is seen as the second most powerful person in the country, and as a close friend of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This indeed is the question raised by Rubabuddin Sheikh, brother of Sohrabuddin. Given the track record of the CBI in recent times, this is not a question to be dismissed casually. If political pressures did indeed force the CBI to frame Mr. Shah, then, quite plausibly, similar pressures could now have been at work to facilitate his discharge in the case.
The observations of Mr. Gosavi further underscore the importance of freeing the CBI from the influence of those in power. Although the CBI Director now enjoys a fixed tenure, and the appointment is on the basis of the recommendations of a high-level committee, the investigating agency is still subject to the pulls and pressures of the government at the Centre. At the end of a civil rights movement against corruption in high places, the Lokpal Act, 2013 was introduced with provisions to insulate the CBI from political interference. But in high-profile, politically sensitive cases such as the one involving Mr. Shah, the investigation can still be tailored to suit the requirements of the rich and the powerful if the higher courts do not take to strict and constant monitoring. Sohrabuddin’s relatives have decided to appeal against Mr. Shah’s discharge, and some of the evidence will again come under scrutiny. At this stage, if anything at all is certain, it is that the CBI’s handling of this case against Mr. Shah does not inspire confidence in the public mind.
