Ishrat case: MHA not convinced CBI has proof against IB officer

The home ministry is not convinced that the Central Bureau of Investigation has evidence to arrest or prosecute a top Intelligence Bureau officer in the conspiracy to carry out the fake encounter in which Ishrat Jahan and three others were killed in Gujarat nine years ago.

A senior home ministry official said the investigating agency has shared its evidence it has against IB Special Director Rajender Kumar and conveyed its intention to arrest him in the infamous case.

"The CBI has shared evidence with the home ministry after which the ministry told the CBI that this does not show Kumar was part of conspiracy to carry out the encounter. There is not enough evidence against the senior Indian Police Service officer," the official said.

The home ministry also made it clear that the evidence against Kumar was not sufficient to give sanction to the CBI to prosecute Kumar in the alleged fake encounter case.

However, the CBI has not sought sanction from the Home Ministry, which is the cadre controlling authority of IPS officers, to prosecute Kumar.

Officials said that the CBI was planning prosecute and arrest Kumar after his retirement from service on July 31 without asking the home ministry the sanction. Meanwhile, the CBI sources said that they do not need sanction from the home ministry to prosecute Kumar as the case in point is of alleged fake encounter which is not the part of the duty of any government officers.

CBI sources said even in some case of alleged fake encounters which took place in Punjab and were probed by the CBI, no sanction of prosecution was needed.

Last fortnight, the CBI had grilled the senior IB officer to find out his alleged role in the conspiracy to carry out the fake encounter in which Ishrat and three others were killed.

CBI sources have been maintaining that they have evidence indicating that Kumar was one of the officers who had interrogated Ishrat when she was allegedly taken into illegal custody by the Gujarat police before being killed in the alleged staged encounter.

They said the officer was questioned at length with regard to the alleged interrogation and other inputs which suggest his role in the conspiracy leading to the encounter. The CBI sources had said during questioning, Kumar was evasive and continuously repeated that he did not remember fine points about the incident as it happened nine years ago.

The CBI had questioned the IB officer twice suspecting his role in the fake encounter in which 19-year-old Ishrat was killed along with three others on June 15, 2004 allegedly by a team of Crime Branch officials on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.

Sources said Kumar, a 1979-batch IPS officer of Manipur-Tripura cadre, had allegedly generated intelligence input that a group of Lashkar terrorists are coming to Ahmedabad to target Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.