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Ishrat Jahan row: BJP to raise issue in Parliament after RVS Mani's allegations against Congress

News Agencies | Updated on: 14 February 2017, 5:51 IST

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday, 2 March demanded a fair probe by the government in the entire flip-flop surrounding Ishrat Jahan murder case, alleging that former home minister P. Chidambaram changed the affidavit following order of Congress Party's top high command.

"On behalf of the BJP, today we are demanding from the government, that this entire flip-flop in the Ishrat Jahan case should be inquired upon. The way the affidavit was changed.under whose pressure it was changed, for what purpose it was changed. A fair inquiry should be done, including taking the view of all the senior officers of that point of time," Minister of Communications and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad told the media here.

Condemning the act of the Congress Party, Prasad said that while inquiring, it should be taken into consideration who pressurized whom.

"The former home minister must be probed and also top Congress leaders. There was a consistent campaign that Narendra Modi and Amit Shah must be framed. Did Congress Party because of their enmity with Narendra Modi compromised with the security of the nation?" he said.

Prasad alleged that P. Chidambaram did not change the affidavit on his own, rather he did it following order of the Congress Party's top high command.

"There are evidences against Ishrat Jahan, why did P. Chidambaram change the affidavit then? Was P. Chidambaram that irresponsible a Home Minister then? Affidavit was changed, SIT and IB was also pressurized," he added.

In a revelation that has the potential to spark a fresh political row and disrupt the Parliament functioning, former under secretary for internal security at the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) R.V.S. Mani on Tuesday claimed that he did not draft the second affidavit and had been ordered to sign the file in the Ishrat Jehan case.

"I did not draft the second affidavit, I was ordered to sign file, so I did it. If I am ordered to do something, I have to go and do it. I cannot refuse. I cannot say what the need for the affidavit was? You will have to ask people who ordered it," Mani told Times Now.

His claims came days after former home secretary G.K. Pillai alleged that former home minister P. Chidambaram "bypassed him" and "rewrote" the second affidavit submitted to a court in this connection.

Last week, Pillai had said the Ishrat affidavit was "changed at the political level".

Chidambaram said on Monday said the revised affidavit was "absolutely correct" and "as a minister he accepts full responsibility for the affidavit".

Citing intelligence reports, Chidambaram as home minister had submitted an affidavit in the Gujarat High Court in August 2009, which referred to Ishrat's alleged links with Lashkar-e-Taiba.

However, a revised affidavit was filed within a month, in which all references to Ishrat's alleged terror links were missing.

Early on the morning of 15 June 2004, Ishrat Jahan (19), Javed Sheikh, Zeeshan Johar and Amjad Ali Rana were shot dead on the road leading to the Kotarpur waterworks on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.

Police claimed that she was part of a plot to assassinate the then chief minister Narendra Modi.

-ANI

First published: 2 March 2016, 9:22 IST