Solution:

Reason for the Short Circuit:

The middle capacitor is bypassed by a conducting wire (short circuit). Hence, no voltage difference exists across the middle capacitor, and it can be ignored in the calculation.

Simplified Circuit:

1. The circuit reduces to two capacitors $C$ at the top and bottom in parallel.
2. For capacitors in parallel, the equivalent capacitance is simply the sum of their capacitances: $$C_{\text{eq}} = C + C = 2C$$

Final Answer:

The equivalent capacitance of the given combination is 2C.