First affidavit based on facts, don't know about second one: RVS Mani on Ishrat case

New Delhi: In a major revelation, former undersecretary for internal security at the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) RVS Mani said on Wednesday that he had filed the first affidavit based on facts in the Ishrat Jahan case, adding that he does not know the cause of the second one being filed.

"I filed the first affidavit, it was approved by the Home Ministry and then law secretary before it was filed. What was reason for the second affidavit, I don't know. I signed the document because as per the conduct rule three, when an order is received on the file, I have to execute it because before an order is issued by a competent authority or a senior officer, I can put my view points," said Mani.

Mani said after a decision is taken, it has to be executed and so he was authorized to sign the affidavit.

"The Intelligence input conclusion is after the event occurs. I am absolutely neutral person, I have no agenda. The IB is working very hard, there is no margin of error. The home secretary is a very upright officer. Pillai is an excellent officer and a man of very high integrity. So, I have no reason to disbelieve what he has said," he added.

Putting Congress in a spot, Mani pointed out that in the first affidavit he had given every detail of Ishrat Jahan and none of the facts were denied.

"He (P. Chidambaram) has only said that IB inputs are not conclusive. If they were not conclusive, he should have said. We have something else to the contrary," he said.

Mani also alleged of harassment by ex-SIT chief Satish Verma, adding that it is for Verma to answer whether he was working on someone's direction.

"Cigarette butts were put on my thighs and so many things happened. The interrogation started at around 9 a.m., then Satish Verma joined the interrogation at 10:30 am, went up to 2:30-3 pm in polite manner. After that he (Satish Verma) started narrating nonsense. He became physical after 4 pm. I informed the seniors. I have already put an affidavit in the Supreme Court," he said.

Mani further alleged that Verma forced him to take the name of former IB Special Director Rajendra Kumar in bringing the affidavit.

"I said that is not the truth, I am competent. I don't require an IB Officer to walk in and say sign the affidavit. I did not give in to his (Satish Verma) pressures. At 5 pm, I said this is not right, my wife will go to Chief Justice's house and we have contacts there," Mani added.

The former undersecretary for internal security also said that his phone was snatched and he was threatened to taken into custody.

"Pillai was not the home secretary. By then, the tenure had changed. R.K. Singh had come. The procedure is I had to report to the office where I am working. They will forward it to the concerned ministry. In this case, at that time, I was posted in Ministry of Urban Development. I recorded all these things. I put it up to my seniors. I believe that they must have forwarded it to the minister of home affairs," he said.

Mani also said that he expected the government to protect his interest.

"I have seen the file, I will use the word cross fire not encounter. If inquiry into cross fire or encounter was the only mandate of the SIT, why was I called for the investigation. I was not posted in 2004 in MHA, I came in 2005 or so. Legal Attache in the US embassy Daniel had also written saying that it (Ishrat being a terrorist) is true" he said.

In a startling revelation, Mani said earlier that he was coerced to file the second affidavit in the Ishrat Jahan case.

The second affidavit is the one in which the references to the alleged links of Ishrat Jahan, Pranesh Pillai, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) were removed.

Mani's shocking claims come just a few days after former home secretary G.K. Pillai revealed that someone at the political level did not want the real picture to come out in the Ishrat Jahan case.

Pillai had mentioned that two affidavits submitted by the home ministry in relation to the case were contradictory to each other.

The former home secretary had said there was no doubt that those killed in the alleged fake encounter in Gujarat had links with Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Ishrat Jahan was one among four people killed in an alleged fake encounter case in 2004.

Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai besides two Pakistani nationals Amjad Ali and Jishan Johar Abdul Ghani, all alleged LeT terrorists, were also killed in the encounter.