The Home Ministry is unlikely to grant sanction to CBI to prosecute four Intelligence Bureau officials, including its former Special Director Rajinder Kumar, in Ishrat Jahan fake encounter killing case as CBI is unwilling to share its investigation document – ‘case dairy’ — with the home ministry,
The Ministry had sought certain documents, including the case diary, from CBI saying examination of the material available was necessary before taking any decision on granting sanction. but CBI sources said they will not give its “case diary” to home ministry at any cost and will abide by the procedures of CrPC, which allows them to only share it with the court. 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.
CBI feels that giving case dairy to the ministry would set a bad precedent as the Gujarat encounter cases are being monitored by courts. In the coal scam last year, CBI had shared its status report with former law minister Ashwani Kumar for which it was slammed by the apex court. Kumar lost his job because of the blunder.
It is believed that home ministry may now refuse to give prosecution sanction to CBI against the IB officers. CBI has already filed two charge-sheets in the case but trial is pending in the absence of prosecution sanction.
While IB, which comes under MHA, believes Ishrat Jahan 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.