CBI will question IB director as accused
The CBI, which is probing Ishrat Jahan encounter case, has summoned special director of Intelligence Bureau, Rajendra Kumar, again for questioning. This time, sources said, statement of the IPS officer will be recorded as an accused in the case.
Sources said Mr Kumar, a 1979-batch IPS officer from Madhya Pradesh cadre who was questioned earlier also, has been asked to present himself before the agency again. “A fresh notice under the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) has been issued as previous examination of Mr Kumar was not satisfactory and replies given by him appeared diversionary. This time his statement will be recorded as an accused in the case,” sources said. A decision about his custodial interrogation will be taken only after the fresh round of questioning, they added.
Sources further said, “Role of the IPS officer who was posted in State Intelligence Bureau in 2004 had come under the scanner of the agency for the alleged fake input. His statement would be crucial in finalising the chargesheet in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case”.
Ishrat Jahan and three others — Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Sheikh, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar — were gunned down by the Gujarat crime branch police near Kotarpur on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.
“Immediately after the encounter, the Gujarat police had claimed that they (Ishrat and her friends) were on a mission to kill the then chief minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi. The state police had also claimed that they had inputs from the intelligence agencies about Ishrat and her friends,” sources said.
The CBI is probing the authenticity of the inputs given to the state police, sources said adding this is the reason that the agency sleuths want to question the senior IB officer as he was alleged to have played a crucial role in generating an input about purported plan of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba terrorists to kill the then Gujarat chief minister.
Meanwhile, in another development in connection with the case, CBI has intensified efforts to nab Gujarat additional DGP P.P. Pandey who has allegedly gone absconding.
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