Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case: No Home Ministry nod to CBI to prosecute IB officers without case diary

NEW DELHI: The Home Ministry is unlikely to grant sanction to CBI to prosecute four Intelligence Bureau officials, including its former Special Director Rajinder Kumar, in Ishrat Jahan fake encounter killing case as the probe agency has not yet submitted the case diary for examination.

The Ministry had sought certain documents, including the case diary, from CBI saying examination of the material available was necessary before taking any decision on granting sanction.

"No sanction will be accorded without proper application of mind for which material available on record is required. Since CBI has not yet shared the case diary, we are not in a position to take any decision," a Home Ministry official said.

The Home Ministry and CBI are at loggerheads over granting sanction to prosecute the four IB officials with the Ministry demanding the case diary before the nod can be given and the probe agency deciding to seek legal opinion on the demand.

CBI has sought sanction from Home Ministry to prosecute Kumar and three other officers P Mittal, M K Sinha and Rajiv Wankhede in connection with the fake encounter killing of college student Ishrat, in which the charge sheet has been filed after completion of the investigation.

According to the law, a case diary which is maintained by the Investigating officer can be shared only with the court.

Under the provision of Section 172 CrPC, every police officer conducting an investigation maintains a record of the probe done on each day in a case diary in a prescribed format.

These diaries are important record of investigation carried out by an Investigating Officer. Any court may send for the case diary of a case under inquiry or trial in such court and may use such diaries, not as evidence in the case, but to aid it in such inquiry or trial.

While IB, which comes under MHA, believes Ishrat Jahan encounter, in which the 19-year old student, along with three others, was killed by Gujarat crime branch in Ahmedabad in June 2004, was a genuine counter-terror operation, CBI believes otherwise.