New Delhi: Congress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh has demanded clarification from Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on Ishrat Jahan case. He said a lot of questions have arisen about the case after the CBI chargesheet.
Asking Shinde to clarify whether David Coleman Headley, an accused in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case, had said that Ishrat Jahan had terror links, he added that the NIA and CBI have given different statements on the case.
"NIA is saying something, IB is saying something and the CBI is saying something else. There should be clarity on what these government agencies are saying. Media sources should also be investigated. They are spreading panic in the nation," said Singh.
The Union Home Ministry had prepared an affidavit in 2006 and submitted it in 2009 stating that there were inputs on Ishrat being liked to terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba. However, the affidavit was changed later by the Home Ministry.
According to the CBI chargesheet filed in an Ahmedabad court on Wednesday, Ishrat and the three men with her were killed in a fake encounter by the Gujarat Police, but the agency steered clear on whether she was a terrorist or not.
Singh met with Shinde on Friday morning to discuss the case and later said that the truth must come out. "We have not said anything about Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Action should be taken against all those involved in the case, no matter how big or influential the person is. He said.
Meanwhile, the political rhetoric has intensified in the case. Congress leader Jagdambika Pal alleged that Modi and his aide Amit Shah had a role in the case after the statements of Gujarat police officers DG Banjara and PP Pandey.
BJP MP Yogi Adityanath said that India faces maximum terror threat in the world. "The government is worried about the terrorists where as it should worry about securing the country. Banjara's statement was made under duress and Congress is targeting Modi," he said.
In its first chargesheet in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case, the CBI on Wednesday said the 19-year-old girl along with three others - Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Sheikh, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar - was killed in cold blood by the Gujarat Police on June 15, 2004.
The CBI also told a court in Ahmedabad that the agency has evidence to prove that the four were illegally detained and kept in confinement. It added that Ishrat and the three others were tranquilized before being killed.
The chargesheet, however, remained silent on whether the four were terrorists. The Gujarat Police had claimed that Ishrat and three others were a part of a Lashkar-e-Toiba module which was planning to assassinate state Chief Minister Narendra Modi. But the CBI made it clear that it has found no evidence which can establish that they had come to Gujarat to kill Modi.
The investigative agency named eight Gujarat police officers including absconding Additional DGP PP Pandey, suspended DIG DG Vanzara, suspended IPS officer GL Singhal charging them with criminal conspiracy, abduction, wrongful confinement and murder. "The encounter was a joint operation between Gujarat Police and Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau (SIB) of the state," the CBI said in the chargesheet, adding "the encounter was fake".
According to the CBI, IB officer Rajinder Kumar was heading state investigation bureau during the period when the encounter was carried out. But he has not been named in the chargesheet. Investigation is going on against four Intelligence Bureau officers, including its Special Director Rajendra Kumar, and three other officers - P Mittal, MK Sinha and Rajiv Wankhede, it said.
But the biggest relief has come for the Gujarat Chief Minister and his aide Amit Shah as the CBI has not named them in its chargesheet.
Reacting to the chargesheet, Ishrat's family said this was only a partial victory. They refuted BJP's allegations of Ishrat being a terrorist. "Ishrat cannot be a terrorist. She was a sincere student in college. A student as sincere as her cannot be a terrorist," said Ishrat's sister Musarat Jahan.
Comments
0 comment