Aide to Indian PM Modi acquitted of triple murder charges

The head of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a close aide of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was acquitted of murder, kidnapping and extortion charges on Tuesday, exonerating the controversial politician in a case that seems to have undermined the government's promise to usher in a new era of clean politics.

Amit Shah was cleared of ordering police to carry out the 2005 extrajudicial killings of the alleged gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh, his wife and a witness to their abductions when he served as the top law and security official in the state of Gujarat under Modi, who was the state's chief minister. 

The CBI, the country's top investigative agency, had accused Shah of running an extortion racket with the help of police officers and Sheikh while holding the top law-and-order position in Gujarat. India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took over the case from the state courts in 2011 and alleged that Sheik had a falling out with Shah, who allegedly ordered police to kidnap Sheik and his wife. The CBI said the two were later killed in a staged gunbattle, as was the witness to their abductions.

The Gujarat government later admitted all three murders were staged, according to court documents and the officers allegedly involved remain on trial. While fighting the case, Shah resigned from state office and spent three months in jail in 2010. Shah, who denied the accusations, was then released on bail. 

But Judge M.B. Gosavi at a special court run by the CBI, India's top law enforcement agency, on Tuesday said the police case "mostly relies on the statements of witnesses, which are hearsay in nature." This despite the CBI saying it had records of telephone calls between Shah and police officer involved in the shootings and CBI counsel KTS Tulsi saying back in 2010 that the CBI had statements of witnesses who claimed Shah issued the order for the killings, the Indian news magazine Outlook reported at the time.

A sharp political strategist, Shah is widely credited for his party's spectacular electoral victory in national elections in May of this year that brought Modi into power as prime minister. He was appointed to the top post in the Hindu nationalist ruling party in July despite the ongoing murder investigation.

Political activist and member of the Aam Aadmi Party Yogendra Yadav, said back in July on his Facebook page about the appointment of Shah as head of the BJP: "Amit Shah's appointment as BJP President further lowers the minimum moral qualification for becoming a national leader. A sad day."

The opposition Congress Party, ousted in the national polls by the BJP, alleged there had been "government pressure" on the CBI to clear Shah. Congress spokesman Ajoy Kumar was quoted by Indian news outlets as saying the CBI has become "chained, caged and totally immobilized." Coincidentally, Shah himself accused the CBI of working "at the behest" of the BJP's political rivals, including the Congress Party, in previous years. 

Meanwhile, Rubabuddin Sheikh, Sohrabuddin Sheikh's brother, said his family would challenge the ruling.

"Amit Shah has wrongly been protected, and we will challenge the court's order in the high court," he said according to Reuters.

Al Jazeera and wire services