Ishrat Jahan: CBI to delay chargesheet in fake encounter case

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation is set to delay filing of its supplementary chargesheet in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case so as not to embarrass the government by accusing a serving Intelligence Bureau officer of murder and conspiracy.

The agency will file its supplementary chargesheet after the IB's special director, Rajendra Kumar, retires on July 31, a top official told ET on Thursday, adding that the CBI plans to chargesheet Kumar soon thereafter for the Ishrat Jahan case as well as the Sadiq Jamal fake encounter case in quick succession.

"The evidence we have against Kumar and other IB officers in the Sadiq Jamal case is even stronger than in the Ishrat case," said the official, who did not wish to be named. "We intend to move forward in both cases after Kumar's retirement this month as it would not look proper for the CBI to charge a senior IB officer while he is still in service. Additional chargesheets against IB officers will be filed in both the cases in August as we intend to wrap up the probes together."

The agency has not, however, yet decided whether to refer to Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi or the former home minister Amit Shah in these chargesheets.

Sadiq Jamal, a resident of Gujarat, was shot dead allegedly in a fake encounter on January 13, 2004 by the same set of state policemen involved in the Ishrat Jahan encounter on June 15, 2004. Kumar, then posted as the joint director of Subsidiary IB unit in Gujarat, is believed to have generated and communicated intelligence inputs to the Gujarat Police about Jamal.