CENTRE HAD FILED A DICTATED AFFIDAVIT IN ISHRAT KILLING

In yet another revelation in the fake encounter of Ishrat Jahan and others in Gujarat in 2004, a telephonic conversation recorded by suspended officer of the Indian Police Service, G L Singhal, suggests the first affidavit filed by the Centre in the matter was allegedly dictated by the Ahmedabad crime branch. Later, these policemen were themselves arrested as accused in the case. The affidavit was filed by RVS Mani, an undersecretary with Union Home Ministry on 6 August, 2009 after the relatives of those killed in the encounter sought a CBI probe into the case. It had justified the encounter by saying the ‘intelligence inputs’ that led to the killings were genuine. Mani’s affidavit had also agreed with the Gujarat government’s contention that Ishrat Jahan and other killed were all operatives of Lashkar-e-Taiba and, hence, the encounter was not worth a CBI investigation. But the audio clip recorded in August 2009 and made public on 12 December by Advocate Mukul Sinha shows how senior IPS officer PP Pandey had called Singhal and instructed him to get the affidavit prepared through Advocate P R Abhichandani. The conversation has been uploaded on the website truthofgujarat.com.