Congress president Rahul Gandhi stirred up a controversy for referring to BJP president as "murder accused Amit Shah" during a poll campaign in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur.
The allegations drew a strong response from the BJP chief, who cited the court's judgment that the case against him was "politically motivated" and questioned Mr Gandhi's knowledge on legal matters. The Congress president even took pot shots at Shah's son Jay Shah called him a "magician".
Mr Shah was named in a case involving the alleged fake encounter of a gangster, Sohrabuddin Sheikh, which took place in 2005. But in 2014, a court had ruled that there was not enough evidence against him to merit a trial. Last year, the Bombay High Court dismissed a petition against the CBI's decision to not challenge the trial court's order discharging Mr Shah.
Asked about Mr Gandhi's remarks, the BJP chief told reporters: "A fake case was registered against me, in which the court has delivered its judgment. The gist of the judgment is it was a politically motivated case and there is no evidence in this case. I don't want to comment much on Rahul Gandhi's legal knowledge".
Earlier too, the Congress had used the case to target Mr Shah. The BJP said it was an attempt at "character assassination".
Two years ago, there were allegations that Mr Shah's son, Jay Shah, an entrepreneur, enjoyed a big upswing in his business after the BJP came to power in 2014.
Responding to the allegations, Amit Shah, in an interview to news channel Aaj Tak, had said, "If you have documents to prove your allegations, bring them to court".
Emphasising that none of his son's companies "did even one rupee worth of business" with the government or "received kickbacks like in the case of Bofors", Mr Shah said it was not a case of corruption.
