The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) special counsel KTS Tulsi (pictured) to withdraw from the Sohrabuddin Fake Encounter case due to conflict of interest. KTS Tulsi was appearing as a special counsel in Sohrabuddin fake encounter case in which Gujarat’s former home minister and Narendra Modi’s close aide Amit Shah is the prime accused.

The apex court said that since Tulsi had earlier appeared for Gujarat government in the same case in November 2007, he should not represent the CBI. According to TOI, a bench of Justices Aftab Alam and R M Lodha told the Senior Advocate, "You are an eminent counsel and a member of the Law Commission of India. It is not proper for you to appear for the CBI”.

Tulsi immediately withdrew from the case. He told TOI that the accused through their lawyers “first targeted the judge who was earlier heading the bench for ordering CBI probe. Now, when the case is at a critical stage, they have launched a vicious campaign against everyone who is assisting the court and appearing for CBI”. He added, “I recused immediately because I did not want the focus to shift from the culpability of those who may have committed the crime”.

Sohrabuddin was killed in 2005 allegedly by Gujarat police with the help of Andhra Pradesh police claiming he was planning to assassinate Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

In addition to Shah, the other main accused in the case are suspended police officials D. G. Vanzara and Rajkumar Pandian, both Gujarat cadre IPS officers and Dinesh M. N., a Rajasthan cadre IPS officer.

Tulsi was the Gujarat Government’s prosecutor when the encounter was being investigated by the Gujarat police’s special investigation team headed by Inspector General Geeta Johri. Tulsi appeared for the Gujarat Government before the Supreme Court and at that time, the Gujarat Government had admitted before the Supreme Court that it was a fake encounter and Sohrabuddin’s wife was also eliminated as she was witness to the offence. However, later in December 2007, Tulsi withdrew from the case after Chief Minister Narendra Modi made reportedly disapproving comments justifying the 2005 encounter of Sohrabuddin.

In January, 2010, the Supreme Court intervened and transferred the case to CBI as it was unhappy with the police’s probe. Thereafter in July 2010, Tulsi was appointed as the CBI’s prosecutor.

The Supreme Court has however, retained Senior Advocate Gopal Subramaniam’s services as the amicus curiae. However, Shah’s counsel Ram Jethmalani had objections to Subramanaim’s appearance as amicus curiae in the case as long as he was Solicitor General of India. Now, since Subramanium is no longer the Solicitor-General, Jethmalani has no issues.

Shah is on bail right now and as per the Supreme Court order, he cannot enter Gujarat during the pendency of the petition before the Court.

Recently, the Gujarat Government has demanded a fresh investigation by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case by taking it away from the CBI.