Ishrat case: Congress accuses BJP of "obstructing" judicial process

The Congress on Tuesday hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah over the Ishrat Jahan case, accusing them of "obstructing" judicial process and taking to "patent falsehoods".

"The prime minister and the BJP President are shamelessly misleading the country and obstructing judicial process by blocking trial of accused in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case pending in a court in Ahmedabad, Gujarat," Congress chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala said.

He said that Modi and Shah must tell the country the real motive behind "desperation" to shut down the trial.

"What is it that they seek to hide or are scared of needs to be placed before the nation? Is there some evidence available on that file of the court that goes against somebody very senior in the leadership of the BJP, which is scaring Amit Shah and Modi?" he asked.

He alleged that the Modi government is using a "web of selective news leaks, deceptive statements of its ministers and non-grant of sanction for prosecution of the accused to ensure mistrial and reinvestigation through pliable investigating agencies".

"Modi government is not only economical with the truth but is also relying upon patent falsehood to hide the facts," Surjewala said, hitting back at the BJP which accused it of aiding a "conspiracy to eliminate Narendra Modi" and claimed Congress President Sonia Gandhi "worked actively" on it.

Surjewala said the Modi government seeks to "falsely hide" behind the language of pleadings before the high court to ensure no trial takes place and truth does not come out.

"This itself makes the motive of the prime minister, the BJP President and their ministers clearly suspect," he said.

"Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case has no connection to the then Congress government in any manner," he said, adding findings of the fake encounter have been recorded in a judicial inquiry of the encounter by the Ahmedabad Metropolitan Court after examining the entire evidence.

Citing a media report which claimed that the then Home Minister P Chidambaram had signed the first affidavit in the encounter case, Union Minister and BJP leader Nirmala Sitharaman had said on Monday that the Congress, especially Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul, should take responsibility because Chidambaram did so as the party found itself not strong enough to fight Modi politically.

Surjewala sought to to know the motive, the conspiracy and the real reason for "sinister" attempts to derail the judicial process from reaching a final conclusion.

"Is it to hide something that th eBJP is afraid of or to protect the accused officers, one of whom has now been appointed as DG of Gujarat Police despite pendency of trial?

"Or is it to divert attention from the massive scam in Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation in which nearly 20,000 crore of public exchequer's money has been put at stake?" he asked.

"Or is it to divert attention from the illegal land allocation to Anar Patel, daughter of present Gujarat CM Anandiben Patel by the then state cabinet headed by Narendra Modi causing a clear-cut loss to the exchequer?" he asked.