Three key officers handling files in the Home Ministry related to the encounter killing of Ishrat Jahan have deposed before the one-man enquiry committee probing the missing documents of the case. The panel of BK Prasad, Additional Secretary in the Home Ministry, recorded the statements of retired IAS officer Deverakonda Diptivilasa and serving senior IAS officers Dhamendra Sharma and Rakesh Singh in the last few days.
All the three were handling the key Internal Security-I division in the Home Ministry as Joint Secretary in different periods. While Diptivilasa is serving as non-official Director of public sector Corporation Bank, Sharma is at present with the Delhi Government. Singh is serving in the Karnataka Government.
Sources said Diptivilasa, Sharma and Singh explained their respective positions and reportedly pleaded their ignorance about the missing documents related to the Ishrat Jahan case. Rakesh Singh from Karnantaka cadre was a trusted officer of the UPA Government in Home Ministry, handling the key Internal Security Division. He was OSD to Union Minister Veerappa Moily and served with several Congress Chief Ministers in Karnataka.
The papers, which disappeared from the Home Ministry, include the copy of an affidavit vetted by the then Attorney General and submitted in the Gujarat High Court in 2009 and the draft of the second affidavit vetted by the A-G on which changes were made.
Two letters written by then Home Secretary GK Pillai to then Attorney General late GE Vahanvati and the copy of the draft affidavit have also so far remained untraceable.