Ishrat Jahan case: Denial of sanction to prosecute IB officer will be challenged by investigator

New Delhi, March 3: While the narrative in the Ishrat Jahan encounter is changing with several officials who were part of the home ministry alleging that the affidavits were revised, another battle is lined up in the court.

An application will be moved before the Special CBI court in Ahmedabad seeking the second chargesheet in the case.

Further, the lead investigator in this case Satish Verma will also approach the court asking why the CBI had sought a sanction for the second chargesheet when there was no such move when the first one was filed.

The second chargesheet which names four Intelligence Bureau officials including former Special Director, Rajinder Kumar was prepared by the CBI, but the court has not taken cognisance of the same for want of sanction from the home ministry.

Battle to continue:

Verma was the lead investigator of the team set up to probe the Ishrat Jahan case. He has maintained that the encounter was fake. He says that the three persons along with Ishrat Jahan were picked up days before the encounter, locked up and then shot dead. He further adds that there was never any intelligence input regarding Ishrat Jahan.

Verma's name did the rounds all of yesterday after former home minister official R V S Mani accused him of tampering with the facts of the case. He also alleged that he had been tortured by Verma a charge that the officer has denied. Verma further went on to state that the statements made by Mani and also former Home Secretary G K Pillai are not correct.

Mani who was in charge of filing the affidavits was accused of filing the same at the behest of the Gujarat police. Verma says that they did not look like affidavits of the home ministry and moreover he had no direct knowledge of the case. He also said that there was nothing to suggest that Ishrat Jahan was a terrorist. How have they termed her as a fidayeen. She was away from home for ten days only and that is not enough time to be trained to be a fidayeen leave alone fire a 303 rifle, he argues.

The next move by Verma would be seek a copy of the second chargesheet which was prepared against the four Intelligence Bureau officials.

Further, he would also argue that the CBI had not sought the home ministry's sanction when it filed the first chargesheet. Why was this procedure introduced when the second chargesheet was filed.

The Home Ministry had refused sanction to prosecute Intelligence Bureau official Kumar as a result of which the court had refused to take cognisance of the second chargesheet. Verma is likely to tell the court that denial of sanction to prosecute the IB officer is not sustainable under law.

OneIndia News