SC to hear CBI plea for transfer of Sohrabuddin case

The Supreme Court will tomorrow hear CBI's plea for transferring the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter killing case outside Gujarat in which former State home minister Amit Shah is a key accused.

The Supreme Court will on Thursday hear CBI's plea for transferring the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter killing case outside Gujarat in which former State home minister Amit Shah is a key accused.

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CBI has in a petition sought transfer of the case outside the state on the ground that one of the judges hearing the case had become "servile" to the former home minister.

A bench of justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Prakash Desai on Wednesday said it would hear on Thursday CBI's plea after conclusion of arguments on the investigating agency's appeal seeking quashing of the bail granted to Shah by the Gujarat high court.

In its transfer petition, CBI alleged "there was open servility and excessive demonstration of favourable and partisan attitude to Shri Amit Shah by the learned additional chief judicial magistrate.

"He was granted exemption from appearance even without giving a hearing to CBI," the agency claimed.

Sohrabuddin and his wife Kausar Bi were allegedly abducted by cops of the Gujarat's Anti-Terrorist Squad(ATS) from Hyderabad and killed in a fake encounter near Gandhinagar in November 2005.

Tulsiram Prajapati, said to be an accomplice of Sohrabuddin, was subsequently eliminated by the ATS to destroy evidence as he was an eye witness, CBI alleged.