Modi’s blue-eyed boy in the dock

Like Stalin's Beria, and George Bush's Dick Cheney: they ran the terror machinery. So if you get one, you actually get two, like a packaged deal. That's what is happening in Gujarat.
Amit Sengupta Delhi 

Like Stalin's Beria, and George Bush's Dick Cheney: they ran the terror machinery. So if you get one, you actually get two, like a packaged deal. That's what is happening in Gujarat.

Finally, Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah is in the dock. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's blue eyed boy, right-hand honcho, boss of the dirty tricks department, confidant and loyalist, trouble shooter and trouble maker, Hindutva's macho maleness and BJP's role model - is in deep trouble. He skipped CBI's summons on Thursday, and refused to yet again to respond to the summons on Friday at 1 pm. These delaying tactics, however, sources say, won't work. It's just a matter of time, according to sources, that he will be put behind bars, for his alleged and decisive role as the top boss in the fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, Kausar Bi, his wife, and one year later, Tushar Prajapati, the sole eyewitness. 

Fifteen top cops, some of the highest ranking officers in the state and reportedly aligned to the close coterie of Modi, are already in jail in connection with the murders. And as home minister, sources in Gujarat say, Amit Shah's role has been meticulously documented, including phone calls and witness accounts. 

The speculation on Thursday night was that he might be picked up in the wee hours of the morning, the hours between darkness and dawn during which the police love to pick up half-asleep, not-so-alert individuals, also the twilight hours which encounter specialists love as well - when the whole world sleeps their most delicious dreamless sleep. That is, unless they become too cocky and confident, as some top cops, Modi's favourites, became, in Gujarat. And regretted it thereafter, like Mumbai's trigger-happy encounter specialist, Daya Nayak.

Amit Shah's role as home minister during the fake encounters has been under much speculation since the top cops, including the former notorious Gujarat ATS chief DG Vanzara, was implicated in the murder. Vanzara was known to be a reckless encounter specialist who went berserk. His close proximity to both Shah and Modi is well known in police circles. Uncannily, the shadow of Modi looms large because both Sohrabuddin and Ishrat Jahan and others (widely perceived to be also fake encounters) were accused of planning to assassinate Modi. Indeed, human rights activists are asking that if Shah was in the know of the murders, how come Modi, who runs a one-man authoritarian show in Gujarat, was not aware of the encounters?