Manmohan Singh must stop "misuse" of IB, CBI: BJP

NEW DELHI: Amid a tussle between Intelligence Bureau and CBI on the Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case, BJP today appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to deal with the issue "apolitically and objectively" and stop "misuse" of the two agencies by the government.

BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said there are reports of a "trust deficit" between IB and the CBI on the Ishrat Jahan case.

Jahan, an alleged LeT operative, was killed in an encounter in 2004. The cops involved in the encounter are said to have acted on the basis of an intelligence input from IB.

"This issue has now reached the doorstep of the Prime Minister. We ask him to look at the issue apolitically and objectively so that IB and CBI work in national interest rather than for political mileage," Sitharaman said.

The main Opposition also alleged that the Information and Broadcasting Ministry appeared to be engaged in controlling and censoring the press on the Ishrat Jahan case.

Sitharaman said some reports relating to the encounter were put on the website of leading magazines but these were removed from the site "within no time".

"Is the Information and Broadcasting Ministry involved in this in someway? Are the media organisations being surpressed by the ministry? If the IB, CBI and now the media are being controlled, then we wonder if we are getting back to the Emergency days," Sitharaman said.

The party asked the government to clarify if it is trying to stop the media from reporting freely.