Probe was a political conspiracy: Rajinder Kumar

NEW DELHI: Intelligence Bureau (IB) former special director Rajinder Kumar, who was named by the Central Bureau Investigation (CBI) in the Ishrat Jehan encounter broke his long silence and said he and others officers of the central agency were “forced by the CBI to become pawns” as the attempts were being made to lock up their main political opponent behind bars.

“It was a political conspiracy to subvert democracy,” Kumar told ET. An IPS officer of 1979 batch, Kumar’s disclosure comes in the backdrop of Headley deposition before a Mumbai court on Thursday that Ishrat was a member of LeT suicide squad.

Investigations into the encounter case gathered pace in 2013 ahead of the general elections and CBI rounded up several senior officers of the Gujrat police and IB.

The agency also probed the role of senior BJP leaders from Gujarat and examined BJP chief Amit Shah. Kumar who was also questioned by CBI in connection with the probe said, “It is shameful that some officers of CBI for post retirement benefits padded up evidence against an officer of DG rank of a central agency.

If they can pad up evidence against a DG level officer than what is the credibility of CBI?” Meanwhile, reacting on the development former intelligence chief of Gujarat said that unless there are independent and verifiable evidences to the claims made by Headley, there is very little credibility in what he says.

“The man himself being a criminal will say anything to lessen his burden,” Shreekumar told ET.