The Gujarat High Court today granted bail to former state minister Amit Shah over three months after he was arrested by the CBI in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.
     
Justice R H Shukla granted bail to 46-year-old Shah on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh and a condition that he will have to appear before the CBI's Mumbai office every month as the case is registered there.
     
The court also rejected the demand of the CBI to grant three weeks stay on the bail order as the agency would like to appeal against the verdict. This plea was made by CBI counsel Yogesh Ravani.
    
Shah's lawyer Nirupam Nanavati assured the court that his client would comply with all the terms and conditions of the bail and also any additional terms which the CBI would like to impose.
    
He was arrested by the CBI on July 25 and he has spend over three months in the Sabarmati jail here.
     
Shah, a close aide of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, has been described by the CBI as the "kingpin" of the conspiracy leading to the fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh in November 2005 and killing of two key witnesses, Soharabuddin's wife Kausarbi and his close aide Tulsiram Prajapati.
     
Earlier, a CBI court had rejected the bail application of Shah.

The CBI court while rejecting the bail application of Shah on October 8 had said there is every likelihood that if Shah is released on bail he may misuse his political power to hamper investigation.
     
Shah is likely to be released from the Sabarmati jail after the due process is over, Nanavati said.
     
The three-month legal battle between the CBI and Shah witnessed a clash of senior lawyers like Ram Jethmalani who represented the latter and K T S Tulsi who appeared for the investigating agency.
    
Jethmalani during his arguments had said the CBI court's order of not granting bail to Shah lacks judicial balance.
     
Jethmalani had argued that Sohrabuddin was an extortionist and a racketeer and entire exercise to arrest Shah was politically motivated to tarnish his reputation as the investigating agency has no material evidence against him.
     
Tulsi had argued that Shah did not deserve bail as he was threatening witnesses from inside the prison.