Ex IB director,colleague contest summons in Ishrat Case

Citing denial of sanction by the Ministry of Home Affairs to prosecute them in Ishrat Jahan encounter case, ex-special director Rajinder Kumar and superintendent of police rank officer Mukul Sinha of Intelligence Bureau have pleaded before a special magisterial CBI court to quash the summons issued to them.

In June this year, the special CBI court had issued summons to Kumar and Sinha while taking cognisance of the charge sheet filed by the CBI against them in 2014. Kumar is accused of conspiracy, murder, arms act among other charges while Sinha is facing charges of abduction and illegal confinement of Mumbai girl Ishrat Jahan, Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Sheikh and two alleged Pakistani nationals - Amjadali Rani and Zeeshan Johar.

Two of their colleagues, Rajiv Wankhede and Tushar Mittal, are co-accused in the case along with seven Gujarat policemen. Wankhede and Mittal had also been summoned by the court which they challenged before a special CBI sessions court. The court quashed the summons last year on the grounds of a technical fault and also for want of required government sanction for prosecuting them.

Last Saturday, Kumar and Sinha's lawyer S V Raju submitted in the CBI court that since summons to two other co-accused were quashed, the court could not have issued these summons to the remaining two accused since the quashing order would "operate against the present applicants also who sail in the same boat inasmuch as sanction was refused even against them too." The CBI sought time for filing its reply.

The IB officers have said in their pleas that court should not have issued process as the order with regard to their two other colleagues has not been challenged.

Apart from charge sheeting seven Gujarat policemen on June 2013, CBI had also filed supplementary charge sheet against four IB officers in February 2014 in the magisterial court. While the court committed the first charge sheet to the sessions court for trial, the supplementary charge sheet has remained pending in magisterial court ever since with a note from CBI that it couldn't get permission from union government to prosecute IB officers.

In the sessions court, out of seven accused Gujarat policemen including P P Pandey, D G Vanzara and NK Amin have been discharged by the sessions court while four remaining accused have also moved pleas to get discharged.