New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday told the Gujarat government that it has been adopting "adversarial attitude" in the proceedings relating to the case of fake encounter killing of gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh in which its former minister Amit Shah is one of the accused.
"Don't forget (that) the state has been taking adversarial attitude and sometime adversarial attitude turns into hostile attitude. Here is a prima facie case in which three persons were killed in cold blood and the matter needs to be investigated.
"More than once we said state should have shown anxiety to come to the bottom of the things. Why should it happen anywhere in the country?," said a bench of justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Prakash Desai.
The bench made the remarks when Gujarat's Additional Advocate General Tushar Mehta was making submissions during the hearing of the CBI's plea for cancellation of Shah's bail.
The bench, which reserved its order on the CBI's plea to cancel Shah's bail and that of former minister to allow him to enter the state in view of the upcoming Assembly election, was told by his counsel Ram Jethmalani that his conduct in the past months should be taken into account for grant of the relief.
The bench turned down the CBI's suggestion that Shah should be directed to stay outside Gujarat if his bail is allowed to be continued.
"That is not accepted. Can you suggest any other condition?," the bench asked CBI counsel Vivek Tankha. Senior advocate Gopal Subramanian, who is assisting the court as amicus curiae in the case, suggested that the former Gujarat minister should be directed that he should not influence the trial directly or indirectly.
The bench, which made it clear that the trial of the case will be shifted outside Gujarat, preferably to Maharashtra, was told by Jethmalani that Shah was willing to give an undertaking that he would abide by all conditions imposed on him and was even ready to move in the state under "the watchful eyes" of the CBI.
The senior advocate said the Gujarat High Court granted bail to Shah, stating there was no evidence against him and in its appeal, the CBI has not assailed that finding.
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