New Delhi:
Ishrat Jahan was part of a terror plot, former Intelligence Bureau officer Rajinder Kumar, charged in the 2004 fake encounter case, has told NDTV.
Ishrat, a 19-year-old college student, was killed along with three men by Gujarat policemen who claimed they had been told by the Intelligence Bureau that the four were terrorists who planned to assassinate Narendra Modi, the state's chief minister who is now running for Prime Minister.
Last week, the CBI filed a supplementary charge-sheet in which it accused Mr Kumar, a former Gujarat Intelligence Bureau chief, of murder, and three serving intelligence officers of conspiracy.
Breaking his silence, Mr Kumar said angrily that the CBI case was "complete falsehood."
"All four of them were part of terror plot. We are not vultures to target innocent people. We are human beings," Mr Kumar said. "Our action relates to counter terrorism and involves no criminality."
The CBI has alleged that Mr Kumar provided the weapons used in the fake encounter and an AK-56 that, the agency alleges, was planted at the scene of the shooting to portray the victims as terrorists.
Mr Kumar, who retired as special director in July, spoke about his expertise in counter terrorism in a career spanning 30 years. "Not many policemen apart from a few in the Intelligence Bureau know how counter terrorism works. (The CBI) are ignorant of this," he said.
When asked about the CBI's allegation that he had a meeting with Gujarat IPS officer DG Vanzara, one of the seven policemen charged with murdering Ishrat and the others "in cold blood", Mr Kumar said, "If there was a meeting do you think someone can hear what is going on? I was such a senior officer; no one would dare walk into our meeting."
The retired officer said he had enough evidence to prove the CBI false. "I have singlehandedly done more for the protection of national security than anybody else. We will defend ourselves."