Ishrat Jahan case: Did Chidambaram sign affidavit referring to her as an LeT member?

In an exclusive, Times Now has claimed that the an affidavit describing Ishrat Jahan as a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative was signed by the then Home Minister P Chidambaram.

The recent revelations made by former home secretary G K Pillai, former undersecretary in the home ministry RVS Mani, and former joint director Rajendra Kumar on the deposition by LeT operative David Headley suggested that an affidavit was filed on the basis of inputs from Maharashtra and Gujarat Police besides the Intelligence Bureau where it was said that the 19-year-old girl from Mumbai outskirts  but it was ignored in the second affidavit.

A second affidavit was filed which officials claimed to have been drafted by the then Home Minister P Chidambaram, said there was no conclusive evidence to prove that Ishrat was a terrorist.

Pillai had recently claimed that as Home Minister, Chidambaram had recalled the file a month after the original affidavit, which described Ishrat and her slain aides as LeT operatives, was filed in the court.

Subsequently, Chidambaram had said that Pillai is equally responsible for the change in the affidavit.

Pillai may now also be examined by a one-man inquiry panel probing the issue of missing files related to the case.

The panel will examine all officers - serving or retired - who have dealt with the Ishrat Jahan related files," an official privy to the deliberations in the Home Ministry said.

Pillai had filed two contradictory affidavits in the Gujarat High Court in 2009 on the Ishrat Jahan case.

The inquiry, by Additional Secretary in the Home Ministry B K Prasad, was ordered by the Home Ministry after it was found that some papers related to the Ishrat Jahan case went missing.

Earlier in March, in a sharp attack on P Chidambaram, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said the second affidavit filed in the Gujarat High Court was “fraudulent”.

Saying the encounter in which Jahan and her other alleged LeT operatives were killed in Gujarat was “honest”, he asked if the Congress believed it was fake why did it then allow those officers involved in the actual shootout to get bail on the 90th day by not filing chargesheets and make them a witness.

With inputs from PTI