Amit Shah! The BJP’s vaunted election-winning machine, the juggernaut along with you know who, Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The two are in the middle of a set of five state elections, fighting in a couple of them with their backs to the wall, and Shah is distracted by alleged past derelictions criminal in nature. Karma!

Sohrabuddin Sheikh, a gangster with terror links, his majordomo Tulsi Prajapati and wife Kauser Bi fell to the encounter specialists of Gujarat Police, the Ab Tak Chappan sorts in 2005/6. While the bullet-ridden bodies of Sohrabuddin and Prajapati, killed a year after Sohrabuddin, were there for all to see, Kauser Bi vanished as if she never existed. What fate was dealt her is horrible to imagine.

If the intention was to erase all human evidence, the painted images of the alleged perpetrators somehow fit the imagination backed by hesitant voices. The current lot of CBI, engaged in a fratricidal war, wouldn’t be bothered by what happens to Shah & Co. But there are those on the fringe who cannot forget. And brothers who remember, but who defy to remember.

Nayamuddin told a special CBI court earlier this year, that the “Central Bureau of Investigation had added names of Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah and Gujarat police officer Abhay Chudasma on its own to his statement recorded in 2010,” that he had nothing to do with the additions. He is among more than 50 witnesses who turned hostile in the case.

Nayamuddin and another brother Rubabuddin had at many points of time alleged threats from “powerful people.” In May this year, Shahnawazuddin Sheikh approached the special Mumbai court to be made a witness in the case, alleging that his brother was killed in a “pre-planned conspiracy by several persons, including police officers” and that the prosecuting agency “failed to include” him as a witness. He claimed to have four blank pages signed by Tulsi Prajapati, which pointed to a conspiracy.

In 2010, Nayamuddin apparently gave a statement to the CBI alleging a threat to his life from Chudasma and Amit Shah. Nayamuddin now denies making such a “concocted” statement. Earlier this month, a “CBI chief investigating officer” in the case, Amitabh Thakur, told a special court in Mumbai that the killings were carried out with a “dual motive of political and monetary gains,” and that the beneficiaries were those behind the “larger conspiracy – Amit Shah and senior IPS officers DG Vanzara, Abhay Chudasma, Rajkumar Pandiyan and Dinesh MN.”

All of them were exonerated by the Supreme Court. And Thakur did not have material evidence to prove these people were “monetarily or politically motivated.” Thakur was with the CBI in 2006. On November 21, another former CBI CIO Sandeep Tamgade claimed before the CBI court that the main conspirators were BJP chief Amit Shah and three IPS officers. However, in a replay of Thakur, Tamgade said he did not have any documented evidence to prove his claim. So, it is Tamgade’s word against Amit Shah’s. And courts go by hard evidence, the heavier the guy, the louder he is heard.

The fact of the matter is, Amit Shah is the proverbial cat with nine lives and he seems to have used half of the nine – 4 and a ½! Earlier this year, Shah narrowly escaped allegations of being culpable in Judge Loya’s mysterious death. Judge Loya was hearing the Sohrabuddin death case. Tamgade said on November 21 that he was not naming Shah without evidence, but he did just that by declaring in court that he was not naming Shah! To add to the confusion, he said he had evidence Sohrabuddin and Prajapati were “used” by Amit Shah to target rivals.

So Amit Shah survives, lampooned on social media as 'Tadipar', but for how long? With general elections descending on him faster than a meteorite, Shah needs more than nine heads to put up battle, and you know who had 10 heads – the asura king who took off with Sita, who luckily was recovered and returned safely by hubby Ram, unlike the unfortunate Kauser Bi, her ‘Shohar’ dead mackerel in the street, killed in the fake encounter.

There is this picture in the Internet of Amit Shah, on one knee with his face buried in the palms of Modi! You know clearly who is inspiration and role model for the heavyset Shah. Iconic! Shah and Modi go a long way back and if they have secrets, they aren’t telling them to common folks or to the CBI. Sohrabuddin Sheikh needs all his surviving brothers and a few more. Shah has 4 and a ½ lives left, safe but not quite. (IPA Service)