New Delhi, Sept 27 (ANI): Senior Congress leader Jagdambika Pal on Thursday said the party is "concerned" the Supreme Court's order to grant bail to former Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah in connection with the Sohrabuddin Sheikh Fake Encounter Case, and added that it could have a possible impact on the forthcoming Gujarat assembly elections.
Shah has been allowed to travel to Gujarat by the Supreme Court.
Pal said: "It's a matter of concern for us. Considering that someone who has been a mastermind, the kind of impact he might have on people; and the kind of communal colour he might add to the elections is a matter of concern for us."
Commenting on BJP's chances in Gujarat elections post Shah's return, Pal said that it wouldn't get any benefit from the development.
"BJP is happy to play the communal card. Nitish Kumar and many important leaders of the BJP are not ready to accept the communal face of Narendra Modi. I don't think they will benefit from it," he added.
Earlier, in a major blow to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Supreme Court on Thursday rejected its plea for cancellation of bail of Amit Shah, former minister and close aide of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, in the 2005 Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.
The apex court also allowed Shah to travel to Gujarat.
The CBI had argued for cancellation of Shah's bail on the grounds that he may try to influence witnesses in the case.
The Supreme Court, however, ordered the shifting of trial to Mumbai, one of the key demands of the investigating agency.
Sohrabuddin and his wife Kauser Bi were allegedly abducted by the Gujarat's Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) from Hyderabad and killed in a fake encounter near Gandhinagar in November 2005.
Shah was arrested by the CBI on July 25, 2010 and had spent over three months in Sabarmati Jail in Ahmedabad. He had to quit the Modi government in July last year after having been slapped with kidnapping and murder charges in the fake encounter killing.
The CBI, however, has filed a charge-sheet against Shah in Tulsiram Prajapati case.
The CBI had said that Mr Prajapati was a witness in the Sohrabuddin case and his killing was part of a larger conspiracy in which Shah, as the then head of the state administration, was involved. (ANI)