Ishrat Jahan's credentials could always remain a mystery

NEW DELHI: The Home Ministry has decided not to accede to Congress leader Digvijaya Singh’s demand that the government must clarify whether Ishrat Jahan was a terrorist or not.

Ishrat’s credentials could hence always remain a mystery as CBI has already made it clear that it does not have the mandate from the court to go into it.

Just six days after Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said he was inquiring about Ishrat’s credentials from the National Investigation Agency as per Digvijaya Singh’s demand, he did a volte-face on Tuesday saying this will not be disclosed by the Ministry.

“Whatever David Coleman Headley has said, it was before the FBI. And we have an agreement between FBI and NIA. So, we cannot disclose it. Whatever I know, I have said. I can’t say anything beyond,” Shinde said on Tuesday, when asked if the 26/11 accused lodged in a US Jail (Headley) had ever confirmed to NIA that Ishrat was a terrorist.

A senior official explained the ministry’s predicament, saying if the Home Ministry says that there is no concrete evidence to term Ishrat a terrorist, which Congress seems to be nudging it to do, the ministry risks antagonising the Intelligence Bureau as well as going against its own August 6, 2009, affidavit before the Gujarat High Court in which it termed Ishrat as a LeT terrorist.


“On the other hand, if the ministry says that Ishrat had terror links, we will have to justify the same with concrete evidence which is not forthcoming from NIA…also the ministry may be seen to be playing into the hands of BJP,” the official said.

Also faced with the prospect of meddling in a sub-judice matter with any such clarification, the ministry has chosen to keep mum. An unsigned NIA note submitted to the Union Home Ministry on October 13, 2010, apparently carried a reference from Headley’s interrogation by NIA in the US earlier that year in presence of FBI agents in which Headley is said to have mentioned that LeT leader Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi had told him that the ‘Ishrat Jahan module’ was a failed project of a LeT commander Muzammil.

However, NIA made no mention of this in Headley’s interrogation report submitted to the Home Ministry, which was also confirmed to ET by then Home Secretary GK Pillai. NIA, in 2011, subsequently told the Gujarat High Court: “Aversion made regarding Headley making statement on Ishrat Jahan is purely in the nature of hearsay, it does not have any evidentiary value.”

BJP ATTACKS GK PILLAI OVER ISHRAT JAHAN

BJP has objected to ex-home secretary GK Pillai’s comments to ET, where he gave the benefit of doubt to Ishrat and said he had not seen any clear evidence to term her a LeT terrorist. BJP Spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said: “Now by saying she should be given an advantage, he is contradicting himself. This is for the courts to say.