Brother seeks narco test on Amit, others

• Court likely to hear application on Aug 14
• ‘CBI not decided who was mastermind’
• BJP President did not appear in the court

Mumbai: Slain gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh's brother moved the special CBI court seeking directions to conduct narco-analysis test on BJP President Amit Shah and 37 others accused in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati encounter cases.

The court is likely to hear the application on August 14.

In the application moved before special CBI judge B H Loya, Sheikh's brother Rubabuddin said that the CBI has not decided who was the mastermind behind his brother's killing.

"CBI has not decided on the mastermind and the role of each accused", said Rubabuddin through his lawyer Feroz Khan Phatan.

Meanwhile Shah did not appear in the court and moved an exemption application which was opposed by CBI. However the court allowed the exemption application.

Shah in his exemption application said that he was president of a National Party and he was busy in meeting various leaders from different states as assembly elections are scheduled later in the year.

Phatan also sought some more time to challenge the transfer order of the Judge Loya's predecessor saying that the apex court, while transferring the case from Gujarat to Mumbai, had said that a single judge will conduct the entire trial.
Loya's predecessor Judge JT Utpat was transferred to Pune on June 25.

The CBI has charge-sheeted Shah, a former Minister of State for Home of Gujarat, and 37 others, including several police officers, in the two cases of alleged fake encounters.

According to CBI, gangster Sohrabuddin, who was claimed to have links to Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, and his wife Kauser Bi were abducted by Gujarat's Anti-Terrorism Squad when they were on way from Hyderabad to Sangli in Maharashtra and killed in an alleged staged encounter near Gandhinagar in November 2005.

Prajapati, an eyewitness to the encounter, was killed by police at Chapri village in Banaskantha district of Gujarat in December 2006.

Shot gun hopeful of becoming a minister

New Delhi: Left out of the Cabinet, BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha is hopeful of being inducted into it, but has said he would not seek a ministerial berth on his own.

He said he will never challenge the wisdom of the prime minister or the Parliamentary Board but felt rumours over his health might have denied him a Cabinet post which he would not refuse if offered. "It is the Prime Minister's prerogative to appoint anybody a minister. Who am I to challenge his wisdom? He may have thought he didn't need me," he told Rajat Sharma in 'Aap Ki Adalat' programme on India TV.

"If they feel that they need my services, I will definitely take up the responsibility. But I will never seek a ministerial post on my own. If offered one, I will not refuse." Asked if he had any desire to become a minister, the former Bollywood star replied, "ye to mujhe pata hai, achchhe din aane wale hain (I know that good days will come)".

When asked about his support last year for L K Advani as prime ministerial candidate, he said the senior BJP leader was his "friend, philosopher guide and ultimate guru".