IPS officer says intelligence input was cooked up: CBI

Girish Singhal,the IPS officer who was arrested and recently released on bail in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case,is learnt to have told the CBI

Girish Singhal,the IPS officer who was arrested and recently released on bail in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case,is learnt to have told the CBI that the intelligence input generated ahead of the June 2004 killing was tailored to cover up the illegal encounter at the behest of Rajinder Kumar,the then joint director of Intelligence Bureau based in Gujarat,then DCP of Ahmedabad crime branch D G Vanzara,and then joint police commissioner P P Pandey.

Singhal was an ACP in the Ahmedabad crime branch at the time of the encounter. Ishrat and three others were killed by a police team near Ahmedabad on June 15,2004.

CBI officials claimed they had evidence that this group of policemen planned the encounter a month in advance by manipulating the intelligence input generated by Kumar.

Two days after Singhals release on bail on May 27,officials said the CBI is tightening its noose around Kumar,who is currently posted with IB in Delhi and is due to retire soon.

A senior CBI officer associated with the case investigation told The Indian Express,Singhal has said that Pandey and Vanzara had planned the encounter killing with the help of Rajinder Kumar. The encounter took place at the behest of Vanzara,who claimed he wanted to eliminate Muslim terrorists who were a part of the ISI conspiracy to destroy Gujarat.

CBI has summoned Kumar for questioning at its Mumbai office. The officer has already been named as an accused by the CBI in the Sadiq Jamal encounter case.

The intelligence input generated by Kumar had said: 8230;Pakistan-based terrorist outfits Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad are very active in India in association with the ISI to spread terrorism. We have received specific input that two fidayeens have left from Kashmir to come to Ahmedabad by different routes and they are on a mission to kill CM Modi.

Story continues below this ad

However,in the FIR dated June 15,2004 the day of encounter,the Ahmedabad Crime Branch claimed Commissioner K R Kaushik had received intelligence input through sources about a possible attack on Modi.

A CBI officer said,Singhal said input was not shared with anyone in the crime branch except Vanzara,who later asked Singhal and N K Amin to form shooting squads but gave no information on what the input was all about.

Pandey moves SC for relief

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Friday sought a reply from the CBI on a petition by Gujarat-cadre IPS officer P P Pandey,who has sought protection from arrest in connection with the 2004 fake encounter case of Ishrat Jahan and three others. A Bench of Justices G S Mishra and Madan B Lokur issued a notice to the probe agency on Pandeys plea to restrain the CBI from arresting him over his alleged involvement in the encounter killing. Pandey apprehended arrest after the trial court issued an arrest warrant against him on May 2 for his failure to respond to the summons of the CBI and present himself for inquiry. CBI had also sought the assistance of Gujarat police to trace Pandey,who is allegedly absconding. ENS