Ahmedabad/New Delhi, July 23
The CBI today filed a chargesheet against Gujarat Minister of State for Home Amit Shah, a close aide of Narendra Modi, and 14 others in connection with the fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and the “brutal killing” of his wife, Kausarbi.

The possibility of minister’s arrest heightened, as his anticipatory bail plea was turned down by Special CBI court judge, GK Upadhaya. Shah, who has not been seen in public for several days and skipped Cabinet meetings and office, also failed to appear before the CBI earlier in the day for questioning for the second time in two days.

The CBI also sent teams to the office and residences of the senior BJP leader in Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad and recorded statements of his staff but could not locate him. The chargesheet filed in the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate AY Dave names Shah besides DIG DG Vanzara, SPs Rajkumar Pandian and MN Dinesh and DSPs ML Parmar and N K Amin among others.

“The chargsheet has been filed under IPC Sections 120-B (conspiracy), 342 (wrongful confinement), 364 (kidnapping and abducting to murder), 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine a person) and 368 (keeping in confinement kidnapped or abducted person).

The other Sections are 384 (extortion), 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of valuable evidence of offence or giving false information to screen offenders), CBI spokesperson Harsh Bhal said in a statement.

“The accused include a DIG, two SPs, two DSPs, three Inspectors, three Sub-Inspectors, DCP, Ahmedabad Crime (arrested and added by the CBI), Minister of State (Home), Gujarat (added during investigation by the CBI, not arrested), chairman, ADC Bank (added during investigation by CBI, not arrested) and Director ADC Bank (added during investigation by the CBI, not arrested).” Bhal added.

Keeping the option of Shah’s arrest open, the CBI asked the court to keep investigation open for further investigation into the larger conspiracy.

Sources said the agency’s decision is driven by its need to interrogate and arrest Shah and it would file a supplementary chargesheet if it got to interrogate him. As the charge against him is grave and there is evidence to link him with crime, there is no reason why he should not be arrested, sources said.