Ishrat case: CBI questions former Gujarat home minister

The CBI team probing the Ishrat Jahan encounter case questioned former state home minister Praful Patel Tuesday. The questioning,being conducted in Gandhinagar,pertains to an alleged meeting held in November 2011 to decide the strategy to obstruct the investigation of the fake encounters of Ishrat Jahan and three others,CBI sources said.

Suspended IPS officer G L Singhal,who was among the nine persons who attended the meeting,had submitted two pen drives to the investigators containing the recorded conversation of the meeting. Patel is reportedly a part of the discussion between police officers,legal heads,bureaucrats and politicians on ways to sabotage the probe. Singhal is now out on bail,as the agency failed to file the chargesheet against him in the stipulated 90 days.

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As Singhal had claimed the meeting took place in Advocate General Kamal Trivedis office,Trivedi was questioned Monday. Sources in CBI said Patel was devising ways to sabotage the case investigated by Gujarat HC-appointed SIT. They said it was Patel who called the meeting and decided to call DSP Tarun Barot and Singhal,who had key roles in the encounter. Patel had insisted that both officers,and others be protected before the SIT declared the encounter fake. A day after the meeting in November 2011,SIT officer Satish Verma had submitted a report in the HC stating that the encounter was fake.

CBI sources said Patel claimed innocence during the questioning,and Jadeja,questioned on Monday,was also evasive about the meeting.