Gandhinagar, July 22
Gujarat's junior Home Minister Amit Shah, who is close to Chief Minister Narendra Modi, today did not show up before the CBI for questioning in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case but said he would appear tomorrow after the agency sent a second summons during the day.

It is for the first time that a state minister has been summoned in connection with the alleged fake encounter by the Gujarat Police near Ahmedabad in which Sohrabuddin, an alleged gangster, was killed on November 26, 2005. The CBI issued the second summons to the Minister of State for Home to appear before it at the agency's office tomorrow after he did not show up within the stipulated time of 1 pm today. Modi holds the Home portfolio. The minister said he would appear tomorrow after he was given time till 1 pm by the it. "A second summon has been issued to me for tomorrow. I will make myself available and anwser all questions," Shah said in a statement from an undisclosed location. Shah, a senior BJP leader, was holding the office as minister when the encounter took place. The CBI had the option of considering declaring Shah as an absconder and arrest him if he ignored the summons.

Shah also said he had no role in the encounter and that his name in his capacity as MoS Home had "not come on record anywhere." — PTI