The Delhi Police has started probing the missing document case pertaining to the sensational Ishrat Jahan encounter that rocked the entire nation in 2004.
The documents had reportedly gone missing from the North Block office of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
In March 2016, an inquiry report led by the then Addl Secretary, MHA(foreigners) BK Prasad examined the Ishrat Jahan files in details and it was found that around five different documents including two affidavits were missing. It was later learnt that the document went missing during the tenure of former Home Minister P Chidambaram. It was yet to be established whether the documents were removed or misplaced by the concurred authority. It was decided that the probe will be handed over to the CBI but later the MHA directed the Delhi Police to probe the matter.
VK Updhyay, undersecretary to the Government of India filed a complaint under Section 409 (Criminal Breach of Trust) of IPC in this respect with the Delhi police.
According to the information, as many as five documents were found missing. The missing documents were the two letters written by then Home Secretary GK Pillai to then Attorney General (AG) on 18th and 23rd September,2009, the draft affidavit further amended by the then Home Minister on September 24, 2009, the law officer's comments and the final corrections to the affidavit made by Chidamb-aram and office copy of the further affidavit filed with the Gujarat High Court on September 29, 2009.
later a draft affidavit sent to the Attorney General was recovered from a computer used by Pillai. The missing documents case had also sparked huge controversy.
On 15 June 2004 four persons Javed Sheikh, Jishan Johar, Amjad Ali and Ishrat Jahan were shot dead in a police encounter in Ahemdabad.
The Police had alleged that the four had come to kill the then Chief Minister of Gujarat, and current Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi.
Shamima Kausar, the mother of Ishrat had moved a Special Criminal Application (SCA) before the Gujrat High Court seeking CBI to probe the matter and Government to compensate her. The respondents to the petitioner (Kausar) were Union of India, the State of Gujarat and others. The then under secretary MHA filed the first affidavit on behalf of Union of India in SCA on 6 August 2009. The Second Affidavit was filed by MHA undersecretary on 29 September 2009. In 2016 the MHA examined all the files at length and found that some documents were missing.
BK Prasad in his report had said that the papers, went missing when they were sent from the then Home Minister's office to the then joint secretary D Diptivilasa's office in 2009.
Based on the statements of 11 serving and retired officers, including the then Home Secretary GK Pillai, the 52-page report said the documents went missing between September 18-28, 2009.
The second affidavit, which was different from the first one, and filed before Gujarat High Court on September 29, 2009, said there was no conclusive evidence to suggest that Ishrat was a leT operative.
The police official said that after taking a legal opinion from the experts they booked the matter under Criminal Breach of Trust as they think someone has intentionally misplaced or removed these vital documents.
According to a senior police official said that the probe is in initial stages. "We are trying to establish the identity of persons who were interested in the stealing or destroying vital documents in this much talked about case," said the police official.