NEW DELHI, June 10: A fresh showdown appears to have erupted between Home Ministry and CBI over granting sanction to prosecute Intelligence Bureau officials, including its former Special Director Rajinder Kumar, with the Ministry asking for the case diary in Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case from the probe agency.
Highly-placed sources said CBI will seek legal opinion whether the case diary of the case can be shared with officers of Home Ministry as the document, which is to be maintained by the Investigating Officer, can be shared only with court under to the law.
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 the 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.
In the cases where sanction for prosecution of an official is sought from the Government, the sources said, CBI provides them with details of the case, evidence against the official and other details to help the authority come to a view.
“We provide the sanctioning authorities with details of the case. We also have meetings with them to explain our case and provide them with material related to the case. However, the case diary per se is neither asked for by an authority nor is shared with them. It is strange that MHA is seeking the case diary in this case. We will take legal opinion on the issue,” a senior officer said.
CBI has sought sanction from Home Ministry to prosecute Kumar (now retired), 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.
Home Ministry had rejected the formal request of CBI seeking sanction for prosecution of Kumar and other accused officers and said all details related to the case must be provided before sanction could be accorded, the sources said.
The sources said Home Ministry, which is the cadre controlling authority for Intelligence Bureau officials, has sought from them details of the case including the case diary in the matter.
While IB, which comes under MHA, believes Ishrat Jahan encounter, in which the 19-year old student along with three others were killed by Gujarat crime branch in Ahmedabad in June 2004, was a genuine counter-terror operation, CBI believes otherwise.
In its charge sheet, CBI had alleged it was a fake encounter and the victims were in the custody of the police officials before being killed by them.
CBI alleged IB officer Rajinder Kumar was part of the conspiracy of killing them while the other officers were part of conspiracy to kidnap them. (PTI)
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