MHA refers CBI request on Ishrat case to law ministry

The home ministry has referred to the law ministry the request of CBI seeking files from it related to contradictory affidavits on the antecedents of Ishrat Jahan submitted in Gujarat High Court.

Official sources said CBI had sent a request to provide it with the files related to affidavits filed by under secretary R V S Mani in the high court in 2009 within a span of two month giving contradictory versions on Ishrat's antecedents.

The sources said the agency's request has been sent to law ministry seeking opinion whether this confidential information was relevant to the investigation of the case.

In the affidavit filed on August 6, 2009, Ishrat and three others were termed as terrorists while in the affidavit filed on September 30, 2009, it claimed that there was no conclusive evidence to suggest she was a terrorist.

Mani was questioned by the agency in this regard but he could not given any satisfactory reply about the changing stance on 19-year-old Ishrat who was killed along with three others nine years ago in what is believed to be a fake encounter.

Sources said the files related to input which had become the basis for change in the position so that it gets a clear picture of why opinion was changed in such a short period.

The agency has filed its first charge sheet in connection with the fake encounter and is likely to file another in the next six weeks which is likely to carry the conspiracy behind the killing of Ishrat, Javed Sheikh, Zishan Johar and Amjad Ali Rana allegedly by a team of Gujarat Crime Branch.

They said the files related to the said affidavit become important as they could reveal the role of people who might have been interested in portraying Ishrat as terrorist. The agency in its charge sheet has not given antecedents of any of the four killed but might give in the next charge sheet.