A close aide of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP’s in-charge for Uttar Pradesh, Amit Shah, could find himself in a spot of bother with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) placing on record audio conversations between an accused cop in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case and ministers in the Modi government, including Shah, which hint at an attempt to derail the probe.
The CBI, in its charge sheet filed in an Ahmedabad court recently, has annexed exhibit (D162), two pen drives that allegedly carry conversation between an accused cop G L Singhal and ministers, bureaucrats and police officers in the Modi government.
More damning for Shah, who is also an accused in the fake encounter of Sohrabudin Sheikh, is the reported telephonic conversation between Singhal and Shah.
For the first pen drive, the annexure of the CBI charge sheet states: “The pen drive carries telephonic conversation between Shah and Singhal in the month of August and September 2009 relating to misuse of police for extra-legal purposes in miscarriage of justice.’’
The charge sheet also mentions a second audio recording which has also been handed over to the CBI by Singhal.
The CBI claims that in 2011, Singhal had attended a meeting at the private chamber of the state’s advocate general, which was attended by a few ministers in the Modi cabinet, G C Murmu, secretary to the chief minister and IGP A K Sharma. They were allegedly discussing ways to derail “the Ishrat probe.”
Sources said these aspects will be dealt with once a supplementary charge sheet on the larger conspiracy behind the fake encounter is filed.
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