Modi govt lawyer livid at speech, EC awaits report

New Delhi: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has made his government’s stand in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case untenable with his speech on Tuesday, a senior Supreme Court lawyer has said.

“The state government, for the past one year, has repeatedly taken the stand before the Supreme Court that extra-legal killing in a fake encounter was cold blooded murder. The officers accused in the case are being prosecuted for murder and conspiracy,” said KTS Tulsi, who represents the Gujarat government in the Sohrabuddin case.

“The Gujarat government is prosecuting these officers and has charge-sheeted them, and here is a Chief Minister who says persons who are suspected to have terrorist links are justified to be killed in this fashion. He is inciting lawlessness. I am completely at loss to understand the CM's words—they make my position before the Supreme Court untenable,” Tulsi said.

“I cannot continue as counsel for Gujarat government unless the Chief Minister makes a satisfactory clarification. He cannot make a mockery of the law.”

IANS reports the state government, in an affidavit before the Supreme Court, has admitted that its anti-terrorist squad had erred in killing Sheikh, a Muslim businessman, after framing him as a terrorist in 2005.

Modi, while speaking at a rally in Mangrol town of Surat district on Tuesday, said Sheikh deserved to be killed. His speech has created a furor with the Election Commission indicating it would wait for an official report before deciding on any action against him.

"I have not yet received a report from the Surat collector on the speech by Narendra Modi," Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswamy said in reply to reporters' queries.

Gopalaswami, who was visiting Surat, said he had read media reports on Modi’s speech. "Once we read an official report on it from the (Surat) collector we will decide what to do."

Senior BJP leader and former chief minister Keshubhai Patel has indicated his disapproval with Modi’s speech. “I am angry with his policies,” said Patel, who has refused to campaign for the BJP ahead of Assembly elections.