Ishrat Jahan Case - A Reality Check

Post Revelations of IB Officers Rajendra Kumar, Sudhir Kumar, Former NSA M K Narayanan, Ex Home Secretary G K Pillai and Ex Under Secretary R V S Mani on the Ishrat Jahan case, allegations are being thrown thick and fast from all sides of the political spectrum.

The intent of this post is to just collate most of the facts that have come out or were in the public domain and point to the larger theme of a political expedient investigation to settle scores. An investigation that has unraveled in the most insidious ways and highlighted how various Indian intelligence agencies were systematically demoralized and demonized.

Question of the Affidavit

The initial affidavit filed in the Ishrat Jahan case was modified by the UPA govt and these important claims were made in the modified affidavit

1. There is no conclusive proof that Ishrat Jahan was a terrorist
2. UPA govt recommends CBI probe into the matter

Now Mr. G K Pillai has explicitly claimed that he was not a party to the changes and it was modified at the behest of then home minister. He had made a similar claim in 2011 which were summarily ignored by Indian media, CNN IBN to be specific.

Mr R V S Mani, former under secretary in the home ministry, has also echoed the same sentiment as Mr. Pillai. He has gone on record and stated that he only believes the contents of the first affidavit, and was tortured and pressurized by the SIT officer Mr. Satish Verma to indict Senior IB officer Rajendra Kumar.

He goes on to say that he does not think that it was a fake encounter and he completely believes that Ishrat was indeed a LeT operative

Mr Sudhir Kuma, IB officer, had this to say on the matter

While Mr. A K Jain (Former Joint Secy, MHA) made these revelations on the Ishrat case which were even more damning to the previous establishment. He directly linked the changes in the govt approach in the case to the National Advisory Council, the same NAC which was an extra constitutional body in the UPA regime and of which Teesta Setalvad was a member.

What has recently come to light is that according to MK Narayanan, IB reports were fairly conclusive in establishing links of Ishrat Jahan with terrorist group LeT. This is indeed a very scathing observation which completely derails the premise of the investigations that have happened in this case.

Mr Chidambaram who was the home minister then, on the other hand has taken complete responsibility of the modified affidavit while expressing regret that Mr Pillai has distanced himself from the matter. This could be a political ploy to attract attention from the Gandhi family as Chidambaram has been out of active political discourse for some time. Although with the testimonies and evidence that is coming out it seems that the matter should be probed in detail.

Another important update that is hard to ignore is this NewsX story where the director of the forensic lab which conducted examination of the “encounter” site claims that according to scientific evidence they collected, the “encounter” was genuine. He also claims that the then SIT chief, Satish Verma, rejected the reports giving some very frivolous reasons which he and his team strongly disagree with. More on this SIT chief later in the post.

Hence with Senior officers of impeccable integrity distancing themselves from these changes, it can be alleged that the changes were for political expediency rather than for concerns for human rights of an “innocent” girl. What is definitely required is a deeper probe and culpability to be fixed to the erring parties.

Statement: P Chidambaram

Statement: G K Pillai

Statement: R V S Mani

Interview: R V S Mani

The antecedents of some of the key players in this case is also worth examining. It is obviously a layman perspective on the matter and the post does not suggests that the research has been conclusive.

Mr. Satish Varma: Officer in the SIT (Special Investigation Team)

Satish Verma, the SIT officer who investigated the case allegedly had close links with Teesta Setalvad.

“Teesta is a rights activist who runs multiple NGOs in Gujarat like the Sabrang Trust and Citizens for Justice and Peace. She has been at the helm of activism for the 2002 riots and has also been closely associated with UPA govt as a member of NAC and a recipient of funds from HRD ministry for her NGOs. She is also facing serious charges of funds embezzlement in the Sabrang Trust.”

There were outstanding allegations against Mr Verma pertaining to 1993 Mumbai blasts and he was an accused in an inquiry on the same when he was chosen by the Gujarat High Court to lead the SIT.

Further Mr Verma was also facing allegations of fake encounters in Gujarat. It is astounding as to how can an officer with such a dark past be chosen to work in the SIT for such an important case. But then the UPA govt and the Lordships of the Gujarat High Court must have had their reasons.

Post the start of the SIT probe, R V S Mani had submitted an affidavit in court in 2013 against Satish Verma in which he had claimed harassment, torture during interrogation. Additionally it was alleged that Verma believed that 2001 Parliament attacks and 26/11 attacks were stage managed by the then Indian governments. Though it did show up in the print media but the TV media did not give it any coverage.

This article from 2013, from a self avowedly RW site, details the role of Satish Verma in the CBI investigation team.

Vrinda Grover

Vrinda Grover, the lawyer for Ishrat Jahan, has been at the forefront of NGO activism in the country. She again is an important cog in the Idea of India establishment and inadvertently has been with the Congress and left ecosystem on a lot of contentious issues. Here is what she had to say about it, when David Headley testified that Ishrat Jahan was a member of LeT

“Ishrat Jahan who is not a terrorist is accompanied by terrorists 500 miles away from her home in Mumbai”. That seems like a very convenient from Ishrat’s lawyer. More on that later.

TV Media : Senior Journalists

The role of the Media again comes into question with new facts emerging in this case and old ignored interviews of Pillai being shared on social media. Media’s sins are mostly that of omissions and commissions. In this case also the focus was never to bring out all the facts in the open with honesty but to support UPA endeavors in projecting the encounter as fake. Conspiracy theories like “Kaali Daadi”/”Safed Daadi” were proactively given credence by NDTV journalists and “Truthing the Hype” became more important than “Hyping the Truth”. CNN IBN, Times group etc were all in on the game and to question UPA motives was blasphemy.

Journalists wrote homilies as to how the case is a blot on the nation’s conscience and how every citizen of India should be ashamed while completely ignoring the available evidence in the matter. The needle of suspicion goes out to Barkha, Rajdeep, Sreenivasan Jain, Sagarika, Ashish Khetan and their ilk and they should probably answer what sources were they relying on when they were indicting the Gujarat police and Intelligence agencies of India.

R V S Mani has even alleged that he gave interviews to CNN IBN which was ignored by the channel and were never aired on TV

Gujarat HC

Last but not the least, the most surprising aspect might pertain to the judiciary. Honorable Judge of the Gujarat HC, Abhilasha Kumar, who monitored the SIT probe is the daughter of Himachal Congress CM Virbhadra Singh. The post raises no questions on the professional integrity of the honorable Justice but there probably is an alleged conflict of interest.