The CBI today alleged that former Gujarat minister Amit Shah was heading an extortion syndicate culminating in the fake encounter killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh. Appearing before a bench of justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Prakash Desai,additional solicitor general Vivek Tankha,cited statements recorded before the judicial magistrate and disclosure statements by various witnesses who had accused Shah of running an extortion racket. He cited the purported statements of several real estate owners and businessmen who had testified that the former minister of state for home had let loose a reign of terror by engaging top police officials like D G Vanzara to extort money by threatening to kill them in fake encounters. Tankha alleged that Tulsiram Prajapati,one of the witnesses,was eliminated by Gujarat Police as he knew about the killing of Sohrabuddin and his wife Kauser Bi in November 2005. The CBI had earlier filed an application for cancellation of Shah's bail on the ground that he has considerable clout to intimidate witnesses. The agency had filed the cancellation application after the Gujarat High Court had in October last year granted him bail.
