Ishrat Jahan case: CBI hands over documents on IB officials to MHA

New Delhi: CBI has handed over to Home Ministry the documents sought by it for deciding granting sanction to prosecute four Intelligence Bureau officials in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case. The Home Ministry had demanded “case diary” and Superintendent of Police’s final report before deciding to give sanction to prosecute the IB officers. [caption id=“attachment_1598173” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Ibnlive[/caption] CBI sources said the agency has handed over necessary documents to Home Ministry officials including “statements of the accused, statements of the witnesses and other documents relied upon during the case”. The sources said the agency has, however, refused to share these documents with the Gujarat government. Home Ministry sources had said the ministry had sought certain documents from CBI saying no sanction will be accorded without proper application of mind for which material available on record is required. CBI has sought sanction from Home Ministry to prosecute Special Director Rajinder Kumar (now retired) and three other officers P Mittal, M K Sinha and Rajiv Wankhede in connection with the fake encounter killing of college student Ishrat, in which the charge sheet has been filed after completion of the investigation. Under the provision of Section 172 CrPC, every police officer conducting an investigation maintains a record of the probe done on each day in a case diary in a prescribed format. These diaries are important record of investigation carried out by an investigating officer. Any court may send for the case diary of a case under inquiry or trial in such court and may use such diaries, not as evidence in the case, but to aid it in such inquiry or trial. While IB, which comes under MHA, believes the Ishrat encounter, in which the 19-year old student along with three others was killed by Gujarat crime branch in Ahmedabad in June 2004, was a genuine counter-terror operation, CBI believes otherwise. PTI