Amid Congress protests, says it was a bid to ‘frame Modi’
Amid Congress protests, says it was a bid to ‘frame Modi’
Levelling serious charges against the earlier Congress-led UPA government, home minister Rajnath Singh accused it on Thursday of hatching a “deep conspiracy” to frame Narendra Modi, then Gujarat CM, in the Ishrat Jahan case by allegedly altering an affidavit on the matter.
Replying to a call attention motion on the alleged change in the affidavit on the Ishrat case, the home minister said the previous government had done a “flip-flop” on Ishrat Jahan’s links with terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT).
“Unfortunately, I have to say that there was a flip-flop by the UPA government in the Ishrat Jahan case,” he said.
Without naming his predecessors in the home ministry in the UPA government, Mr Singh accused them of giving “colour” to terrorism by coining the term “saffron terror”.
Amid protests and slogan shouting by Congress MPs who trooped into the Well of the House, Mr Singh charged that the erstwhile Congress-led government of coining terms like “saffron terror” and “Hindu terror”.
“Colour, creed and religion should not be associated with terrorism. Terror has no colour... The seculars gave colour to terrorism. Selective secularism cannot be accepted by the country,” the home minister said.
He said the recent statement by Pakistani-American LeT terrorist David Headley before a Mumbai court reaffirmed the first affidavit filed by the UPA government on August 6, 2009 before the Gujarat high court which said Ishrat had links with LeT. “It (Headley’s statement) was the second clear indication that she was a terrorist,” he said.
The home minister said the second affidavit filed by the Centre before the high court on September 29, 2009 had “weakened” the fact that she was an LeT operative. He said the effort seemed to be to “defame the then Gujarat chief minister (Narendra Modi), the state government, some leaders and those associated with the case. There was a deep conspiracy to frame them”.
The minister said a few key documents, including two letters written by the then home secretary (G.K. Pillai) to then attorney-general late Goolam E. Vahanvati and the copy of the draft affidavit have so far been untraceable.
He said the missing documents include the copy of the affidavit vetted by the AG and the draft of the second affidavit vetted by the AG on which changes were made.
“We have ordered an internal inquiry in the home ministry and necessary action will be taken,” Mr Singh said.
The call attention motion was moved by BJP MPs Nishikant Dubey, Satya Pal Singh (retired IPS officer who headed the SIT probing the Ishrat case), Anurag Thakur, Kirit Somaiya and BJD MP Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo.
In his written response to the call attention motion, Mr Singh said notings on the concerned file did not provide any reason for filing the second affidavit, PTI reported.
“It has been mentioned in the affidavit the further affidavit was being made in view of subsequent developments on issues connected with the petition and to clarify apprehensions... in regard to the (first) affidavit filed by the Union of India as well as to refute attempts to misinterpret portions of the affidavit,” he said. He noted that the second affidavit stated all intelligence inputs “do not constitute conclusive proof” and it is for the state government and state police to act on such inputs.
“It was further submitted that the Central government is in no way concerned with such action nor does it condone or endorse any unjustified or excessive action. It was also mentioned the main purpose of the first affidavit was to highlight the contradiction in the pleadings averred in the petition filed by Shamima Kausar (Ishrat’s mother) and the petition filed by M.R. Gopinath Pillai (Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai’s father),” read the statement.
Ishrat was killed in an alleged fake encounter in Gujarat in 2004.
The first affidavit was filed on the basis of inputs from the Maharashtra and Gujarat police, and Intelligence Bureau, that said the 19-year-old girl from Mumbai’s outskirts was a Lashkar activist, but this was ignored in the second affidavit, MHA officials said. The second affidavit, which former home secretary G.K. Pillai claimed was drafted by then home minister P. Chidambaram, said there was no conclusive evidence to prove Ishrat was a terrorist.
