The CBI is all set to file supplementary chargesheet in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case by the end of August. The agency is also preparing to record the statement of former special director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) Rajendra Kumar in connection with the case again.
Sources said: “The agency is probing the role of former special director of the IB along with three others officers — P. Mittal, M.K. Sinha and Rajiv Wankhede”. The agency is likely to elaborate on their exact role in the supplementary chargesheet, likely to be filed by the end of August, they added. Ishrat along with three others — Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Jishan Johar — was killed in a fake encounter near Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.
CBI’s probe has already revealed that senior IB officers, including Mr Kumar, had allegedly personally monitored the operation to detain Jishan Johar, who was subsequently killed in the encounter along with Ishrat on June 15, 2004. The agency in its first chargesheet, filed in a local court in Ahmedabad on June 3, said, “Passive agents engaged by Mr Kumar and accused Gujarat police officer G.L. Singhal assisted other accused cops in managing the illegal custody of Jishan Johar”.
Investigations also revealed that in the last week of April 2004, Jishan, on his arrival in Ahmedabad, was taken into illegal custody by a joint team of accused Gujarat police officers and state intelligence bureau officers of Ahmedabad consisting of Mr Kumar and Mr Singhal, said the agency report. Mr Kumar has already been quizzed twice in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case being probed by the CBI. The agency is also examining the role of Mr Kumar in connection with its probe into the January 2003 Sadiq Jamal encounter case.
“Role of Mr Kumar is being probed by the CBI in connection with the Sadiq Jamal encounter case also. The agency may call Mr Kumar for questioning in connection with the case very soon”. Probe by the CBI has revealed that Jamal was also allegedly kept in illegal custody by the Gujarat and the Maha-rashtra police before he was killed in Ahmedabad on Jan. 13, 2003.