Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: Amid a raging political controversy over the killing of Mumbai girl Ishrat Jahan by Gujarat police in an alleged fake encounter, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Tuesday refused to divulge details on the Mumbai girl’s alleged terrorist links.
Speaking to the reporters, Shinde said, “As we are bound by a US agreement we cannot divulge confessions of David Headley.”
Ishrat and her friend Javed Shaikh, alias Pranesh Pillai and two Pakistani nationals Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar, were killed near Ahmedabad by a team of Gujarat Crime Branch officials on June 15, 2004 after being illegally confined to police custody for nearly ten days.
The probe was later handed over to CBI on the direction of the Gujarat High Court. CBI in its charge sheet filed earlier this month had said the encounter was fake and named seven Gujarat police officials in the act.
The CBI has sought from the Home Ministry the files on the basis of which it changed its stance on the antecedents of Ishrat Jahan who was killed in an alleged fake encounter along with three others nine years ago.
The then Under Secretary Home Ministry, RVS Mani gave two affidavits before the Gujarat High Court within a period of nearly two months giving contradicting opinions on the antecedents of Ishrat, sources said.
In the affidavit filed on August 6, 2009, Ishrat and three others were termed as terrorists while in the affidavit filed on September 30, 2009, it claimed that there was no conclusive evidence to suggest she was a terrorist.
Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh had recently met Shinde and asked him to clarify whether Ishrat had any link with Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba.
