GK Pillai reaffirms Ishrat was LeT operative-The Pioneer-23.11.11

A day after the Special Investigation Team (SIT) told the Gujarat High Court that the Ishrat Jahan encounter was not genuine, former Home Secretary GK Pillai defended the Gujarat Government's claim that the Intelligence Bureau had given inputs against Ishrat and pointed out that she was declared as a martyr by the LeT website.

Pillai said from the available evidences, it was clear that Ishrat and others were involved in suspicious activities. “She was declared as martyr by the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) website, which later removed it. “Ishrat used to live with another man in different hotels, which definitely was suspicious,“ said the former Home Secretary. “When I was the Home Secretary I had seen the input received by the intelligence agencies about her suspicious activities and links with the militant outfit, LeT. The Intelligence Bureau then clearly warned that a LeT terror module was planning to eliminate Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi,“ said Pillai.

He also said that the SIT report was not a comment on whether Ishrat was a terrorist or not. “The SIT only said that from the evidence available, it was found out that the encounter was fake, but there was no word on whether Ishrat and others were alleged terrorists or not,“ Pillai said, and added that the Intelligence Bureau input regarding this issue was shared with their Gujarat counterparts.

The SIT on Monday told the Gujarat High Court that the Ishrat Jahan encounter was not genuine. After the SIT filed its report, the High Court ordered that a complaint for murder under Indian Penal Code Section 302 has to be filed against those involved in the fake encounter. Headed by IPS officer RR Verma and including two other seniors police officers Mohan Jha and Satish Verma, the SIT said that Ishrat along with Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed prior to the date of encounter on June 15, 2004.

All three SIT officers came to an unanimous conclusion that the encounter was fake.

The arguments in the case will continue over the issue of who will file an FIR and investigate the case.

Those accused in the case include then Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) PP Pande, suspended Deputy Inspector General DG Vanzara, then Assistant Commissioner of Police GL Singhal and Assistant Commissioner of Police NK Amin all IPS officers.

There were total of 21 policemen, including the IPS officers, involved in the fake encounter.