CBI drops Shah from Ishrat case charge sheet

In a major relief to former Gujarat home minister Amit Shah, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday did not name him in its second charge sheet in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case. 

The agency, however, named former Gujarat Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief Rajinder Kumar and three other serving IB officers. While Kumar was charged with murder, the serving officers – P Mittal, M K Sinha and Rajiv Wankhede – were accused of conspiracy and illegal confinement. 

The agency had earlier interrogated Shah. Kumar, who retired last year, was the only IB official to be charged with murder. He also faces charges under the Arms Act. According to the CBI charge sheet, he provided the weapons used by policemen to kill Ishrat and three others.

The 200-page charge sheet, however, does not mention any motive for the alleged involvement of these officers. The case created a rift between the IB and the CBI.

Ishrat was killed on June 15, 2004, along with three others, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, allegedly by Gujarat crime branch officers. They claimed to have been tipped off by the IB about four terrorists who planned to assassinate Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

In its first charge sheet filed in July last year, the CBI accused seven policemen of murdering Ishrat and others in cold blood and planting an AK-56 rifle on the crime scene to portray them as terrorists.