In a major relief for Gujarat Chief Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s close confidant Amit Shah, the CBI has decided not to include his name in supplementary chargesheet in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case.
The CBI probe has not led to any legally tenable evidence on the basis of which Shah could be named as an accused in the chargesheet, agency sources said. Sources said that Shah’s name had surfaced after one of the main accused, DG Vanzara, claimed that the former Minister had ditched him and other police officials who have been booked by CBI in various encounter cases.
Shah, who was the Gujarat Home Minister in 2004 was quizzed after jailed IPS officer Vanzara claimed in his resignation letter that GujaratGovernment was “inspiring, guiding and monitoring” every police action from “very close quarters”.
However, CBI probe did not lead to suitable evidence to prove his direct involvement in the encounter or in the conspiracy behind it, they added.Shah has been charge sheeted in other encounter cases relating to Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati. He was arrested in connection with Sohrabuddin case in July, 2010 and is presently out on bail.
The agency, meanwhile, has sought the opinion of the law Ministry on whether sanction is needed to prosecute Intelligence Bureau officers in the alleged conspiracy to eliminate lashkar terrorist Ishrat and others.
CBI sources claimed they have gathered enough evidence against IB officers in the conspiracy behind the encounter but there are contrary views on whether sanction from Home Ministry is needed to prosecute Special Director Rajinder Kumar (now retired), and three other officers - P Mittal, MK Sinha and Rajiv Wankhede.
One view holds that since Kumar was in active service at the time of the alleged crime, sanction for his prosecution is needed from Home Ministry, which is the cadre controlling authority, the sources said.
Another opinion was that since he retired from service in July this year, the agency could go ahead with its chargesheet without any need for a sanction to prosecute, they said.
The agency does not want to go ahead with a half-baked case, hence the matter has been referred to law Ministry for clarity, they said.
Seven officers of Gujarat Crime Branch have been charge sheeted by the central probe agency in the encounter case of Ishrat, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar in 2004.
A CBI spokesperson said, “No final decision for filing the supplementary chargesheet has been taken as of now. The matter is still under consideration.”