The Central Bureau of Investigation, in its second charge-sheet in the case, filed today, has not named former Gujarat Home Minister and Narendra Modi aide Amit Shah, who it had interrogated.
Rajinder Kumar, who is now retired, is the only one charged with murder. The CBI has accused the three serving IB officers - P Mittal, MK Sinha and Rajiv Wankhede - of conspiracy and illegal confinement. Mr Kumar has been charged under the Arms Act too; the CBI has alleged that he provided the weapons used by the Gujarat cops to kill Ishrat and three others and also an AK-56 that was planted at the scene of the shooting to portray the victims as terrorists.
But nowhere does the 200-odd page charge-sheet mention a motive for the alleged involvement of these officers, a fact that is expected to exacerbate friction between the IB and the CBI.
Ishrat Jahan was killed along with three men on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on 15 June, 2004, by Gujarat crime branch officers who claimed they had been told by the IB that the four were terrorists who planned to assassinate Narendra Modi, the state's chief minister who is now running for Prime Minister.
The Intelligence Bureau has said that though its officers alerted the Gujarat police to the possibility that the four people were affiliated to the Pakistani terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, its officers did not authorize or participate in the killing. The IB and home ministry have argued that the intelligence officers can't be charged for doing their duty.
In its first charge-sheet in July last year, the CBI accused seven senior policemen of murdering Ishrat and the others "in cold blood".
One of those senior cops, DG Vanzara, alleged from jail last year that then Home Minister Amit Shah was aware of the police's actions. Sources said the CBI has, however, been unable to establish political sanction to the alleged conspiracy.
0 comments:
Post a Comment