In a big blow to the BJP government in Gujarat, junior Home Minister Amit Shah, has resigned. He has sent in his resignation to the state Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Modi has said his resignation will be accepted.

"As I landed here in Delhi, I have information that Amit Shah's resignation has reached my residence in Gandhinagar. On return, I will accept it and complete the formalities," Modi, who is in New Delhi to attend the National Development Council meeting, said.

Political pressure was mounting on Amit Shah to step down after the CBI named him as an accused in the fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kauser Bi.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has come out in defense of his minister. He said this is a ploy by the Congress and UPA to weaken the BJP.

On Friday Shah's anticipatory bail plea shortly after he failed to show up before the CBI was rejected by Special CBI court judge G K Upadhaya, heightening the possibility of his arrest.
      
CBI also sent teams to the office and residences of the senior BJP leader in Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad and recorded statements of Shah's staff but could not locate him.
      
The probe agency tightened the noose around Shah, who has been named as an accused along with 14 others including some IPS officers in the chargesheet filed today in the special CBI court, on a day of fast paced developments.
      
Shah has been listed as accused number 13 and the chargesheet notes he has not been arrested.
      
A CBI statement said the 15 accused were booked in the fake encounter of Sohrabuddin and for brutually killing his wife Kausarbi. The CBI probe was spread over five states - Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
      
About the summons to Shah, the statement said " he did not appear and hence chargesheet was filed without his examination."
      
Besides the murder charge, the other charges against all the 15 accused included criminal conspiracy, wrongful confinement, kidnapping and abducting to murder, extortion and destruction of evidence under various IPC sections.