The CBI has summoned Special Director of Intelligence Bureau Rajendra Kumar to record his statement as an accused in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case.
Kumar, a 1979-batch IPS officer from Madhya Pradesh cadre, who was questioned on May 31, has been asked to present himself before the agency again and record his statement as an accused in the case, agency sources said.
Fresh notice under the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure has been issued as previous examination of the officer was not satisfactory and the sleuths could not gather much in terms of evidence.
A decision about his custodial interrogation will be taken only after the fresh round of questioning. The agency has also sought a legal opinion whether Kumar could be arrested in the alleged stage-managed Ishrat encounter case. Investigators have sought custodial interrogation of Kumar following which the CBI sought a legal opinion.
The sources said the role of the officer, who was posted in State Intelligence Bureau in 2004, had come under the scanner of the agency for the alleged fake input.
The sources said his statement would be crucial in finalising the charge sheet in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case as he was alleged to have played a crucial role in generating an intelligence input about plan of lashkar-e-Tayyeba terrorists to kill Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
The CBI on instruction of the Gujarat High Court took over the probe of the case in which 19-year-old Ishrat, Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004 allegedly by a Crime Branch team led by DIG DG Vanzara.
In another development in connection with the case, CBI has intensified efforts to nab additional DGP of Gujarat PP Pandey, who has allegedly gone absconding even as warrants have been issued by special CBI court against him.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed Pandey’s petition challenging the arrest warrant. The apex court bench headed by Justice Gyan Sudha Misra said the petitioner, a Gujarat cadre IPS officer, could not approach them for challenging the arrest warrant issued by a magistrate, without approaching the high court. Pandey was the Joint Commissioner of Police in Ahmedabad in 2004 when Ishrat was killed by crime branch officials in June.