The Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday challenged in the Gujarat high court the order of a lower court rejecting its plea for the remand of former Gujarat minister Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case. The CBI's plea, demanding 10-day custody of Shah, was rejected on Wednesday by the court, saying the probe agency does not have substantial grounds to seek his remand.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate A Y Dave had rejected the CBI's application, saying the agency was earlier given time to question Shah inside the jail for three days, but they quizzed him for only three hours. Hence, the CBI demand for Shah's remand cannot be entertained, the court said.
The CBI had demanded the custody of Shah, saying he did not cooperate during his interrogation in jail.
The court had further said the grounds for seeking Shah's remand given by the CBI in a sealed cover on Monday were "like general allegations".
"In light of the Constitutional rights of the accused, based on this short note (by CBI), to assume primarily that (Shah) is an accused would not be proper," the court said.
"In view of the facts, also there are no substantial grounds with the CBI to seek remand of the accused (Shah)," it had further said.
