The Centre berated the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday for its "angry" reaction to the Central Bureau of Investigation pursuit against Gujarat Minister Amit Shah, saying it was "belated and simulated".
Home Minister P Chidambaram pointed out that the CBI had filed the case against Shah in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case as per the direction of Supreme Court and lawyer Arun Jaitley should have taken note of it.
"Why this belated and simulated anger. Why express this anger lately. They should have said this in January when Supreme Court handed over the matter to CBI," he told reporters here when asked about the BJP's allegations that CBI was being misused to target opponents.
Shah, minister of state for home in Gujarat, was chargesheeted on Friday by the CBI for his alleged involvement in the fake encounter case. He submitted his resignation later in the day.
"This was a Supreme Court directive and at least (BJP leader) Arun Jaitley should have read it. He is a lawyer. He should have raised it and they should have raised it in January, why raise it now," Chidamabram asked.
Top BJP leadership refused to lunch with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday, accusing the government of using the CBI to target opposition.
Meanwhile, government sources said there was "zero involvement" of the Centre in the case related to the alleged fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh.
Whatever action has been taken by the CBI, everything was carried out following the directive of the Supreme Court, the sources said adding out of the 15 arrested people in the case, 14 were arrested by the Gujarat Police.
"The CBI arrested just one police official," they said.
Sources said Gujarat Minister Shah was called by the CBI only for questioning, not for arrest and there was no reason for him to "hide".
On Afzal Guru execution, they said the home ministry was processing the mercy petitions one by one and Guru's case would be taken according to the serial number.
