Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi maintained a studied silence for the second consecutive day on Friday, notwithstanding the fact that his close aide and minister of state for home Amit Shah faces arrest for ignoring CBI summons in the Sohrabuddin case.

Modi did not turn up in his office on Friday. Officials said he was at his residence. “He was monitoring what was happening perhaps sitting at his residence, directly talking to Delhi leaders. But we can’t say where he was,” a senior Modi aide in the CM office told TOI.

Modi cancelled all his programmes for the day. “He was to go to Delhi on Friday to attend a meeting with Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar on food price. However, the threat of Shah’s arrest led him to cancel the decision to fly,” the aide said, adding, “It is not sure whether he will go to Delhi for the National Development Council meeting on Saturday.” Modi also skipped a ‘Gharib Kalyan mela’ meeting.

An uneasy calm prevailed in Shah’s office in Sachivalaya. Three CBI sleuths visited the office to find out where Shah was. They took junior officers’ statements and asked them since when Shah was not attending the office.

They also asked them about his whereabouts. However, the officers told them that they had “no knowledge of where Shah was”.

The matter was quickly reported to G C Murmu, top Modi aide, who looks after law and order and court cases of the home department, sources said.

The office of the Gujarat home department too wore a deserted look. The only officer present in the department was T S Bisht, secretary, home, who looks after police modernization. There were no files in the chamber of any other babu of the home department, situated in Block No 2 of Sachivalaya.

“Additional chief secretary, home, Balwant Singh, who heads the powerful department, will only be returning from his month-long leave on Monday,” an officier told The Times of India.