P Chidambaram said the Express report "comprehensively exposed the fake controversy" created by the government on the two Ishrat Jahan affidavits.
Highlights
- BJP alleges Ishrat files disappeared when P Chidambaram was Home Minister
- Officer probing missing Ishrat files 'tutored' witness: newspaper report
- Report exposes "fake controversy" created by NDA government: Chidambaram
Senior Congress leader and former Home Minister P Chidambaram today said his stand in the Ishrat Jahan case had been vindicated, citing a newspaper report that suggested that the officer investigating missing files in the case "tutored" a witness.
Home ministry Additional Secretary BK Prasad submitted his inquiry report on the missing files on Wednesday.
The Indian Express newspaper has said in a report that Mr Prasad was recorded telling a witness, officer Ashok Kumar, on phone the questions he would ask and also suggesting the answers.
The home ministry defended its inquiry. "Unfortunate steps were taken by Chidambaram, probably Congress made a mistake and they realized it," said minister of state Kiren Rijiju.
Mr Prasad's inquiry, say ministry sources, establishes that documents on the 2004 killing of 19-year-old college student Ishrat Jahan and three others by the Gujarat police had indeed gone missing when Mr Chidambaram was home minister.
The BJP alleges that the missing files expose a cover-up at a time the Congress-led government amended its own court documents and came out with a new one removing all references to Ishrat's alleged connection with the Lashkar-e-Taiba, to suit the party's stand that an innocent student had been shot dead on the orders of the Gujarat government.
Ashok Kumar told Mr Prasad during his deposition that he was on tour when the second affidavit was filed and he had "during my entire tenure neither dealt with this case nor kept this file in my custody."
BK Prasad, reacting to the Express report, said: "...the question which has been quoted from my alleged conversation (by Indian Express) were never asked from Ashok Kumar and the answers which is quoted by newspaper was never given by him."
Mr Chidambaram said the Express report "comprehensively exposed the fake controversy" created by the BJP-led government.
"The five 'missing' documents completely vindicate the position I had taken. The sequence of events conclusively establishes that we had acted in a totally transparent manner," he said.
"The moral of the story is that even a doctored report (of the Inquiry Officer) cannot hide the truth," he added.