CBI had acted against Shah under pressure from UPA: BJP

New Delhi, Dec 30: BJP today welcomed the court ruling discharging its president Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter killing case, saying the CBI had acted against him under pressure from the previous UPA regime.

Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said justice finally prevailed as CBI had sought to implicate Shah based on hearsay and legally unsustainable evidence.

"It is a matter of great assurance that the hon'ble court has found the entire CBI case against BJP President Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin murder case as politically motivated."

"In fact the manner in which under political pressure of the previous regime, the CBI sought to implicate Amit Shah upon hearsay and legally unsustainable evidences spoke volumes of vendetta politics," Prasad said.

He said a prosecution based on "collusive evidences" not legally admissible was bound to be rejected in a "fair proceeding". "We warmly applaud this judgment," he said.

A special CBI court in Mumbai discharged Shah in the case of Sohrabuddin fake encounter killing in 2005. The CBI had charged Shah, the then Minister of State for Home in Gujarat, as an accused in the killing of gangster Sohrabuddin and Tulsiram Prajapati, who was said to have been an eyewitness to the encounter.

MP Meenakshi Lekhi also welcomed the verdict and said it vindicated BJP's stand. "It vindicates our stand that motivated and especially politically-motivated campaign based on vendetta cannot run the courts and courts will do justice and courts have done justice," she said.

PTI