The CBI will seek sanction for prosecuting former Special Director of Intelligence Bureau Rajinder Kumar in the Ishrat Jahan “fake” encounter case. The agency has already chargesheeted Kumar in the case for criminal conspiracy, murder, illegal confinement, abduction and certain provisions of the Arms Act.
The CBI will seek sanction from the Union Home Ministry under Section 197 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) for prosecuting Kumar. The CrPC Section provides that no court shall take cognizance of a chargesheet against any official who can be removed from service only by the Government. In its chargesheet, the agency had said, “The Sanction for Prosecution for prosecuting the accused Rajinder Kumar… would be obtained from the Competent Authority… and on receipt of the same, it will be submitted to this Honourable Court.”
CBI sources said the agency has also received legal opinion of the Attorney General who has said that prior sanction is required to prosecute Kumar for whatever offence he will be chargesheeted. The CBI had sought legal opinion whether Government’s sanction is required to prosecute Kumar in the alleged fake encounter of Ishrat.
Apart from chargesheeting Kumar for various criminal offences under the Indian Penal Code and Arms Act, the agency has also annexed the evidence collected against him regarding affidavit filed by Union Home Ministry to prove his conduct in projecting “false encounter as genuine.”
Other evidence submitted against the Kumar and three other IB officials include details of six calls made within half an hour on June 6, 2004 from a PCO in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. The alleged encounter of Ishrat and her three lashkar-e-Tayyaba associates took place on the intervening night of June 14/15, 2004.
Kumar had received two calls on his mobile number and one on his landline number from the BSNl landline of the PCO. One call was made to an unknown number in Dubai, another Gujarat police constable KN Gadhvi and one to Javed alias Pranesh Pillai. The CBI has alleged that the calls were made to entrap Javed.