Ahmedabad/New Delhi:
The CBI says that it has proof that one of the most senior officials in the Intelligence Bureau was involved in the fake encounter of 19-year-old college student Ishrat Jahan, who was killed in Gujarat in 2004.
"We have evidence that will stand legal scrutiny," CBI Director Ranjit Sinha told NDTV on Thursday about Rajendra Kumar, currently Special Director with the Intelligence Bureau. He is scheduled to retire next month.
CBI sources say they are investigating whether an AK-47 that was found at the site of the killing may have been supplied by Mr Kumar. Sources have told NDTV that the CBI has incriminating evidence of Mr Kumar's direct involvement in the encounter, and could consider a conspiracy to murder charge.
The CBI had planned to interrogate Mr Kumar on Friday, but the appointment has been moved to Tuesday after Mr Kumar said his father is ill. The chiefs of the CBI and Intelligence Bureau met today with Home Secretary RK Singh to discuss the matter.
When Ishrat, who was from Mumbai, was killed with three others in Ahmedabad by senior police officers, Mr Kumar was Joint Director with the Intelligence Bureau in Gujarat.
The police claimed that the state's Intelligence Bureau had warned that the group was planning to assassinate Chief Minister
Narendra Modi on behalf of terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
During questioning earlier this month, Mr Kumar reportedly told the CBI that the intel alert was genuine to the best of his knowledge, and that he was not involved in the encounter.
But CBI sources disagree. "While he was not present at the spot they were killed, he was involved in the planning," said one senior officer.
Investigators also say that while they understand Mr Kumar's questioning is hurting the morale of Intelligence Bureau officers, they say they cannot ignore statements made by witnesses before magistrates in Gujarat and call data records which seem to implicate him.
The Intelligence Bureau has objected to the CBI's interrogation of Mr Kumar, claiming that it sets a dangerous precedent because its members often work undercover and have sources who will dry up if the officers are entangled in police cases. The agency also says that Ishrat's alleged Lashkar links have also been corroborated by David Headley, who is in jail in the US after confessing that he helped plan the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai on behalf of the Lashkar-e-Taiba.