New Delhi: The Union home ministry and the CBI appear to be headed for a fresh round of confrontation over the sensational Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case with the latter now gearing up to send a “point-by-point” clarification to the fresh queries raised by the ministry.
While defending the agency’s investigations into the case, details of which have also been spelt out in the two charge sheets, CBI chief Ranjit Sinha on Sunday said, “We stand by what we have mentioned in the charge sheets and we will reply to all the latest queries sent to us by the ministry of home affairs pertaining to the case.”
Talking to this Deccan Chronicle, Mr Sinha further said, “Our chargesheet is based on the scientific evidence collected by the agency during the course of investigations.
Even though prosecution sanction against the accused officials is still pending with the centre, charges against them were levelled primarily on basis of scientific and forensic evidence as well as reports collected during the probe”.
The MHA recently asked the CBI to clarify why the agency did not initiate any action against the then Ahmedabad police commissioner when the encounter took place in the area under his administrative jurisdiction.
The ministry has also said that there are conflicting versions about the site of the alleged encounter as well as the identity of those involved.
Reacting to this, Mr. Sinha said, “We will send our reply to the ministry over the issue. We have already given key relied-upon-evidence to the home ministry that should be sufficient for them to decide if the government should sanction prosecution of the four IB officers as requested by the agency”.
The CBI Director further said, “We have shared such evidence that the law permits. Now, if they have sought fresh clarifications which will be duly replied”.
The CBI in February slapped murder and conspiracy charges against former Special Director of the Intelligence Bureau, Rajinder Kumar, in its supplementary chargesheet that was filed in connection with the conspiracy that led to the encounter of 19-year-old Ishrat Jahan and three others on June 14, 2004.
The CBI did not mention anything about the antecedents of Mumbai based teenager in its probe report.
Along with Kumar, those named in the chargesheet are serving officers of the State Intelligence Bureau—P Mittal, M K Sinha and Rajiv Wankhede.
They have been charged under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy), murder, wrongful confinement, kidnapping, wrongful concealment. Kumar, a 1979-batch IPS officer who retired last year, has been additionally charged under Arms Act with CBI alleging that he had provided arms to the accused on June 14, 2004, a day before the encounter took place.
