Mumbai: Former Union home minister P. Chidambaram, who has faced political heat for allegedly tampering affidavits in the Ishrat Jahan case, said he had only made 'editorial' changes in them, as is ‘a compulsive habit with lawyers like him’.
The Gujarat police killed Ishrat Jahan in an encounter in 2004, and while the first affidavit in the case claimed she was a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist, the second affidavit, which was allegedly changed on the instructions of Chidambaram, said there was no conclusive evidence to prove that she was a terrorist.
Denying these charges, Chidambaram said the then home secretary G. K. Pillai had gone through affidavits related to the Ishrat Jahan encounter case at least thrice and challenged his detractors to point out discrepancy in the affidavits.
Read: GK Pillai dares P Chidambaram on Ishrat Jahan issue
"Tell me which part of the (second) affidavit is wrong, which sentence of the affidavit is wrong?” he said yesterday at his book launch in Mumbai.
"What does that paragraph in the second affidavit say? The second affidavit says: 'The first affidavit has been misinterpreted. Intelligence Bureau only shares intelligence with the state government, intelligence information is not conclusive proof; it is for the investigation agency to gather evidence and present it to a court'," Chidambaram told the media on the sidelines of his book event.
When specifically asked about allegations levelled against him, Chidambaram said there were no accusations against him over the Ishrat case.
"The officer who said he did not know anything about the affidavit, went on record in Guwahati on July 13, 2013 saying the second affidavit was perfectly justified. He has changed his view. In a free country, a person is entitled to change his view. The Attorney General of India vetted the second affidavit. No part of the second affidavit was wrong," Chidambaram said.
He reiterated he only made small 'editorial' changes in the affidavit ‘as is a compulsive habit with all lawyers’.
"This is a habit of all lawyers. Any lawyer would put a comma here and there or strike out a word. Then the file went back to the home secretary. The files passed the home secretary's table at least three times," he said.
Read: Team set up to find missing papers of Ishrat Jahan case
"And now, they say those papers are missing. To whose advantage has the vetted draft gone missing? I want the vetted draft. There is nothing to hide. I think the mystery has been unravelled now," he further added.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had earlier ordered an internal inquiry to probe how files concerning affidavits filed in the Ishrat Jahan case had gone missing.
