IB officer dictated Ishrat affidavit: CBI

The CBI suspects a senior IB official had allegedly dictated Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA)'s first affidavit that had termed the Ishrat Jahan encounter as genuine. Abhishek Sharan reports.

The CBI suspects a senior IB official had allegedly dictated Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA)'s first affidavit that had termed the Ishrat Jahan encounter as genuine.

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MHA's first affidavit, which was submitted in the Gujarat High Court by its then under secretary RVS Mani on August 6, 2009, had termed the four deceased in the June 2004 encounter as alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives who were on a terror mission in Ahmedabad.

"We are scrutinising the role of a senior IB official who had personally dictated the contents of MHA's first affidavit that called the Ishrat Jahan encounter genuine.

"There were some contradictions in MHA's first and second affidavits on the encounter, about facts related to Ishrat Jahan's antecedents," said a CBI source.

According to Mani's statement that is part of the CBI's case charge sheet, the first affidavit was cleared by two of his then supervisory officials in MHA's internal security division, the then director and the then joint secretary.

Mani had filed MHA's second affidavit in the Gujarat high court on September 29, 2009, according to which there was no conclusive evidence on whether or not Jahan was a terrorist.

The CBI, which is set to file its supplementary charge sheet in the case, considers leads provided in Mani's statement recorded by it as "crucial" in determining whether or not there was any foul-play connected to the first affidavit, said the source.

Referring to the first affidavit, Mani, in his statement, had said, "The facts or statements made in the said affidavit are based only on the inputs made available by the Intelligence Bureau. The draft of the said affidavit was also submitted by the IB and the same was discussed in the cabin of Director, Internal Security, in the presence of two IB officials."