Will give Congress a fitting reply in polls: Amit Shah

Shortly after the Supreme Court upheld his appeal for bail and allowed him to travel to Gujarat, former Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said he will campaign in Gujarat for the upcoming assembly elections and give the opposition Congress Party a "fitting reply."

Shah, who was here to attend the two-day national executive meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said, "Truth has prevailed. I will go to Gujarat and campaign, and give the Congress a fitting reply."

Accusing the Congress of indulging in a "political conspiracy" against him, Shah said: "I have not received detailed judgment. I am not in a situation to comment on it. It is a political conspiracy."

"This case can go to any court and I will come out innocent. I gave consent that this case can move to any court," he added.

Earlier in the day, giving a major blow to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the apex court rejected its plea for cancellation of bail of Amit Shah, former minister and close aide of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, in the 2005 Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.

The apex court also allowed Shah to travel to Gujarat.

The CBI had argued for cancellation of Shah''s bail on the grounds that he may try to influence witnesses in the case.

The Supreme Court, however, ordered the shifting of trial to Mumbai, one of the key demands of the investigating agency.

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

Shah was arrested by the CBI on July 25, 2010 and had spent over three months in Sabarmati Jail in Ahmedabad. He had to quit the Modi government in July last year after having been slapped with kidnapping and murder charges in the fake encounter killing.

... contd.

ALSO READ

India shoots down 'deal' talk over China incursion, mum on status quo

Delhi gangrape victim's horror ordeal included many bites: Witness

Factional feuds puts Y S R Jagan Reddy's party in disarray in Andhra Pradesh

BJP bargains for UPA deal, says axe P K Bansal, Ashwani Kumar, get backing in Parliament