Ahmedabad, August 4
In a setback to the CBI, a special court today rejected its plea for former Gujarat minister Amit Shah’s custody.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate AY Dave rejected the CBI’s application saying the agency was earlier given time to question Shah inside jail for three days, but it quizzed him for only three hours. Hence, the CBI demand for Shah’s remand cannot be entertained, the court said. The CBI had demanded 10-day remand of Shah (46), saying that he did not cooperate during interrogation in jail.

The court further said the grounds for seeking Shah’s remand given by the CBI in a sealed cover on Monday last, were “like general allegations”. “Grounds for remand have been mentioned by the agency. But 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.

Senior Supreme Court lawyer KTS Tulsi representing the CBI had submitted that Shah’s custody was required for recovery of “important documents” in his possession that could prove to be vital evidence in the case.

The court said that as per a Supreme Court order, which was cited by Shah’s counsel Ram Jethmalani, no remand could be granted for mere recovery or to extract names of other accused in the case. The court’s order further mentioned that CBI had not sought to question Shah in the first 24 hours after his arrest on July 25.