NEW DELHI: Rajinder Kumar, former special director of the Intelligence Bureau, who has been charged by the CBI in the Ishrat Jahan case, has claimed that he is completely innocent.
According to Times Now, Rajinder Kumar has claimed that Ishrat and her accomplices were ‘terrorists’ and part of a terror plot.
In its supplementary chargesheet in the encounter case, CBI has alleged that Rajinder Kumar had given inputs to the home ministry that Ishrat was a terrorist to prove that the encounter in which the Mumbai girl was killed along with three others was a genuine one.
Kumar has denied all allegations mentioned in the CBI chargesheets and said that no criminality was involved in the operation that ended with the death of 19-year-old Ishrat and three others. “I performed my duty,” claimed the former IB director.
“We are not vultures; we don’t target innocent people,” the former director replied to allegations levelled by the CBI that include murder and criminal conspiracy among other things.
The IB official further claimed that the CBI has little clue about how counterterrorism works. He maintained that the case will not stand in court. He also claimed that there is no sufficient proof against him.
The advocate representing the former special director SV Raju said on Monday that no court could take cognizance of the chargesheet against any central government officer if necessary sanctions are not obtained.
Kumar’s counsel told additional chief judicial magistrate HS Khutwad that under Section 197 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the Centre’s sanction has to be sought to prosecute central government officials, which has not been granted in this case.
Raju also said that without previous sanctions, no court could take cognizance of offences alleged to have been committed by public servants while discharging their official duties.
In its first chargesheet filed in the case on July 3 last year, CBI had named four officers but not identified them as suspects, while terming the encounter as fake and a joint operation by IB and Gujarat Police.
IPS officers DG Vanzara, PP Pandey, Girish Singhal, besides Barot, NK Amin, JG Parmar and Anaju Chaudhary had been named as accused.
The CBI had said Ishrat and others were in the custody of Gujarat Police before being killed and, in fact, she and Javed had been interrogated by Kumar at a farmhouse on the outskirts of the city where they were kept in confinement.