Cause of concern that CBI allowed itself to be misused: Jaitley

"I am relieved at the fact that we have an independent judicial system in India which has vindicated Amit Shah," Jaitley wrote in a Facebook article titled "The Vindication of Amit Shah."

He wrote that the charge against Shah was without any basis and it was a "cause of concern" that CBI allowed itself to be misused.

"The charge was without any basis. The fact that the CBI allowed itself to be misused is a cause for concern," he wrote.

Jaitley noted that he had analysed the alleged evidence, both during investigation and after the filing of the charge sheet.

"I was amongst the few voices which had consistently maintained in the past three years that the prosecution of Amit Shah was a case of “No Evidence”. Without analysing the evidence in detail, the media allowed itself to report as was briefed by CBI," he stated.

"Even a vital noting on the CBI file that the implication of Amit Shah was necessary so that the then Chief Minister of Gujarat Shri Narendra Modi could be implicated, was no news for them," added the minister.

Citing details of a letter he wrote as the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2013, Jaitley alleged the charges were filed against Shah at the "behest" of the then Government.

"The probable purpose of the CBI in this case was to try and implicate the political establishment of Gujarat, setting aside the pretence of federal character of India’s governance. The CBI targeted Shri Amit Shah, the then Home Minister and also the Minister of Law, Transport & Parliamentary Affairs of the State of Gujarat with the ultimate desire of implicating Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of Gujarat," he noted.

The CBI arrested Amit Shah with no prosecutable evidence against him., added he.

"It is clear from the above that the charges were filed against Amit Shah at the behest of the then political Government. There was legally no admissible evidence against him," Jaitley wrote in his article.

In a relief to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah, a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Mumbai discharged him in the 2005 Sohrabuddin fake encounter case on Tuesday.

The court admitted  Shah's defence that the case against him was "politically motivated."

The court found most the evidence against Shah based on hearsay.

The federal investigation agency had charge-sheeted Shah in September, 2013 as he was charged with criminal conspiracy, destruction of evidence and offences under the Arms Act.

According to the CBI, Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kauser Bi were kidnapped by Gujarat’s Anti-Terrorism Squad in November 2005 and killed in a fake encounter.

The Gujarat police had claimed Sohrabuddin had links with Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba and planned to assassinate important political leaders. A year later (in December 2006), Tulsiram Prajapati, a witness to the encounter, was killed by the Gujarat police.

Following the controversy, Shah, then a cabinet minister in the Gujarat government led by Chief Minister Narendra Modi, had to step down in 2010 after he was arrested in the case. He got bail three months later.

The family of Sohrabuddin Sheikh said they will move the Bombay High Court against the order.