A former Union home ministry officer has made a startling allegation that a member of the CBI-SIT team probing the Irshat Jahan fake killing case had claimed that the incumbent governments were behind the terror attacks on Parliament and the 26/11carnage in Mumbai.The allegation is certain to escalate the already vicious fight between the CBI and the IB over the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, according to a Sunday Times report.
RVS Mani who, as home ministry under-secretary, signed the affidavits submitted in court in the alleged encounter case, has said Satish Verma, until recently a part of the CBI-SIT probe, had told him that both terror attacks were set up with the objective of strengthening the counter-terror legislation.Mani said Verma narrated that 13/12/2001 (Parliament attack) was followed by the Pota (Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act) and 26/11/2008 (terrorists siege of Mumbai) was followed by an amendment to the UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act).
Giving the context in which Verma allegedly levelled the serious charge against the government, Mani said the IPS officer, while questioning him, had raised doubts about the genuineness of the IB's counter-terror intelligence. He disputed the veracity of the input about the antecedents of the three who were killed in June 2004.The official has further alleged that Verma levelled the charge debunking the IB inputs labelling the three killed with Ishrat in the June 2004 encounter as Lashkar terrorists.
Says Verma also doubted the counter-terror intelligence of IB in the Ishrat encounter case. I was told IB nod must to become home secretary. Mani, currently posted as deputy land and development officer in the Union ruban development ministry, has written to his seniors that he retorted to Verma's comments, telling the IPS officer he was articulating the views of Pakistani intelligence agency ISI.According to him, the allegation was levelled by Verma in Gandhinagar on June 22 while questioning Mani about the two home ministry affidavits in the alleged encounter case.
Mani claimed that Verma, during the questioning, took a negative view of the Union home ministry, terming it a stooge of the IB and emphasising how the ministry was completely dependent on the intelligence agency which uses arm-twisting tactics.The urban development ministry official said, Verma repeated all of you are stooges of the IB. He told that to become home secretary one has to have IB clearance. There is no parliamentary oversight on the IB.In his letter to the joint secretary in the urban development ministry, Mani has accused Verma of coercing him into signing a statement that is at odds with facts as he knew them. He said Verma wanted him to sign a statement that the home ministry first affidavit in the Ishrat case was drafted by two IB officers.
Gujarat police have justified the encounter by citing the IB report that Pakistani nationals Zeeshan Zohar, Amzad Ali Rana along Javed Sheikh were part of a Lashkar module which had reached Gujarat to target Modi and carry out terrorist attacks.In its first affidavit, filed in August 2009, the home ministry had cited IB inputs that those killed along with Ishrat in the alleged encounter were part of a Lashkar sleeper cell and had objected to a CBI probe into the encounter.In its second affidavit, filed in September 2009, the home ministry, irked by the Gujarat government treating the first affidavit as a justification of the encounter, said the IB input did not constitute a conclusive proof of the terrorist antecedents of those killed.It supported the demand for a CBI probe.
Mani said Verma doubted the input, saying the union home ministry's first affidavit was drafted by IB officer Rajinder Kumar, who looked after the IBs operations in Gujarat at the time of the Ishrat encounter and now runs the risk of being chargesheeted by the CBI for hatching the conspiracy behind the alleged extra-judicial killings. Mani said Verma stuck to his guns even after being told that the home ministry did not need outside help. The former home ministry official said Verma insisted that the input was prepared after the encounter.
