BJP seeks probe into UPA ‘flip-flop’ in Ishrat Jahan case

The official said a re-look at the Ishrat Jahan files was necessitated by the former Home Secretary’s statement that the affidavit was changed at the instance of the former Home Minister P. Chidambaram.

Asked if BJP sought a fresh probe into the fake encounter case, he said he will leave it to the report of inquiry he had demanded on behalf of BJP. “Who would believe him”, he said. “The SIT formed by Government also thrashed another person in front of me in order to break me down psychologically”, Mani said.

“Which part of the second affidavit is wrong?”

“Chidambaram was not doing it on his own”.

As was expected happened, taking seriously the allegation that, ex-Home Minister P Chidambaram had altered an affidavit originally confirming Ishrat and her slain aides’ link to dreaded terror outfit LeT, home ministry has accelerated its effort to unearth the truth.

Former Home Secretary G K Pillai’s remarks on affidavit regarding LeT links of Ishrat Jahan today triggered a political war of words with Congress questioning the timing of his claims and alleging that he was only parroting the ruling BJP’s words.

Chidambaram had also expressed disappointment over Pillai distancing himself from the affidavit issue despite being “equally responsible”. Did Congress party compromise with the national security due to its hate for Modi? “It is disappointing that the home secretary, who is equally responsible, wants to distance himself from that”, Chidambaram had said at a press conference.

He said that it was his “duty” to correct the affidavit which was drafted without his approval and was being misinterpreted. It is an absolutely correct affidavit.

Pillai in his recent TV interview alleged that Chidambaram bypassed him and rewrote the affidavit submitted to the Gujarat High Court on the alleged gunfight in which Ishrat Jahan, a 19-year-old student of Mumbra college, and three others were shot dead on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, in 2004.

It is nearly as if the then government was more focused on embarrassing the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi by allowing the impression to gain ground that an innocent girl and not a terrorist had been killed even if it meant subverting India’s Intelligence Bureau (IB) which had launched the operation to counter any LeT threat to the then CM’s life.