The CBI has decided against including BJP general secretary and Narendra Modi confidant Amit Shah in its upcoming chargesheet in the Ishrat Jahan encounter killing case, in what will come as a big relief to the BJP and its prime ministerial candidate and give them a stick to beat their opponents with.
A top CBI official said that while the agency could not find any prosecutable evidence against Shah to prove that he had directed the 2004 encounter killing of Jahan and three others during his tenure as Gujarat’s home minister, CBI Director Ranjit Sinha has decided to press charges against retired Intelligence Bureau (IB) Special Director Rajendra Kumar and his three subordinates for criminal conspiracy leading to murders. Sinha, however, has sought legal opinion from the law ministry and A-G G E Vahanvati on whether CBI needs prosecution sanction from the Union Home Ministry to chargesheet the four IB officers, the official said on condition of anonymity. If CBI opts to seek sanction and the MHA denies it, the agency won’t be able to chargesheet the IB officers. The CBI’s clean chit to Shah and Modi, coming as it does in the run up to the 2014 general elections, will be seized upon by the BJP as proof of Modi and Shah’s innocence and give it ammunition to attack the Congress, which has long alleged that the encounters were nothing but cold-blooded murders. Jahan, a college student from Mumbai was shot dead along with three others in 2004 by the Gujarat police, which claimed they were part of a terror module that had travelled to Gujarat to assassinate Modi. The CBI, which was asked to probe the case by court, has concluded encounter was a fake one, but does not have proof that it was at Shah’s behest.
A CBI investigator said in the absence of actual phone conversation contents, nothing could be substantiated from the call records between Shah, Kumar and arrested Gujarat top cop DG Vanzara before or after the encounter. “The annual rath yatra in Gujarat happened around the time of the fake encounter and the officials may have been in touch with regard to security arrangements for the same. Certain Gujarat police officers did give statements to the CBI that Vanzara and Kumar had mentioned about taking sanction from Shah and Modi for carrying out the fake encounter. But this is in the nature of hear-say evidence which will not stand scrutiny in the court of law,” a top CBI official said.
Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley had in a letter to the PM in September accused the CBI of “bargaining” with some state police officers to implicate Gujarat’s political leadership in this case. CBI chief Sinha over-ruled the opinion of some members of the investigation team who had mentioned in writing that there was inadequate evidence to chargesheet the IB officers as well. Sinha feels there was enough evidence to prove that the IB officers were part of the entire conspiracy along with Gujarat Police officers to abduct, confine and ultimately kill Ishrat and three others in a fake encounter. But he has still sought the A-G’s views on proceeding against the IB officers, possibly chastened by the recent Adarsh housing scandal episode in which the CBI chargesheeted former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan without seeking sanction from the governor. The governor subsequently denied the sanction. No such sanction was sought to charge the Gujarat cops in the first chargesheet in the Ishrat case.
A top CBI official said that while the agency could not find any prosecutable evidence against Shah to prove that he had directed the 2004 encounter killing of Jahan and three others during his tenure as Gujarat’s home minister, CBI Director Ranjit Sinha has decided to press charges against retired Intelligence Bureau (IB) Special Director Rajendra Kumar and his three subordinates for criminal conspiracy leading to murders. Sinha, however, has sought legal opinion from the law ministry and A-G G E Vahanvati on whether CBI needs prosecution sanction from the Union Home Ministry to chargesheet the four IB officers, the official said on condition of anonymity. If CBI opts to seek sanction and the MHA denies it, the agency won’t be able to chargesheet the IB officers. The CBI’s clean chit to Shah and Modi, coming as it does in the run up to the 2014 general elections, will be seized upon by the BJP as proof of Modi and Shah’s innocence and give it ammunition to attack the Congress, which has long alleged that the encounters were nothing but cold-blooded murders. Jahan, a college student from Mumbai was shot dead along with three others in 2004 by the Gujarat police, which claimed they were part of a terror module that had travelled to Gujarat to assassinate Modi. The CBI, which was asked to probe the case by court, has concluded encounter was a fake one, but does not have proof that it was at Shah’s behest.
A CBI investigator said in the absence of actual phone conversation contents, nothing could be substantiated from the call records between Shah, Kumar and arrested Gujarat top cop DG Vanzara before or after the encounter. “The annual rath yatra in Gujarat happened around the time of the fake encounter and the officials may have been in touch with regard to security arrangements for the same. Certain Gujarat police officers did give statements to the CBI that Vanzara and Kumar had mentioned about taking sanction from Shah and Modi for carrying out the fake encounter. But this is in the nature of hear-say evidence which will not stand scrutiny in the court of law,” a top CBI official said.
Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley had in a letter to the PM in September accused the CBI of “bargaining” with some state police officers to implicate Gujarat’s political leadership in this case. CBI chief Sinha over-ruled the opinion of some members of the investigation team who had mentioned in writing that there was inadequate evidence to chargesheet the IB officers as well. Sinha feels there was enough evidence to prove that the IB officers were part of the entire conspiracy along with Gujarat Police officers to abduct, confine and ultimately kill Ishrat and three others in a fake encounter. But he has still sought the A-G’s views on proceeding against the IB officers, possibly chastened by the recent Adarsh housing scandal episode in which the CBI chargesheeted former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan without seeking sanction from the governor. The governor subsequently denied the sanction. No such sanction was sought to charge the Gujarat cops in the first chargesheet in the Ishrat case.
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