Congress president Sonia Gandhi has backed Chidambaram in Ishrat case
Highlights
- Chidambaram attacked for allegedly changing Ishrat Jahan case affidavit
- BJP: Revised affidavit did not mention terror links included in 1st draft
- PM Modi discusses case with ministers, BJP issues notice in parliament
Congress President Sonia Gandhi has come out in support of P Chidambaram, who has been bombarded with allegations by the ruling BJP over the
Ishrat Jehan case.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed the case with his top ministers this morning, after which the
BJP submitted notices to discuss it in both houses.
Asked to respond to the BJP's allegations that the former Home Minister rewrote an affidavit on Ishrat Jehan for political reasons, Mrs Gandhi said today: "Chidambaram has already explained. We have been targeted since we were in power."
Ishrat, 19, was shot dead along with three others in Gujarat in 2004. Gujarat police officers claimed that all four were involved in a plot to assassinate then chief minister Mr Modi.
The BJP has alleged that Mr Chidambaram changed his ministry's affidavit to the Gujarat High Court, which cited intelligence inputs to say that Ishrat was a terrorist, and submitted a second one that said there was no proof of the teen's terror links.
The BJP has alleged that Mr Chidambaram amended the document to suit his Congress party's stand that Ishrat was innocent and shot in cold blood on the Gujarat government's orders. The party alleges that
Mr Chidambaram was directed by his leadership to frame Narendra Modi and Amit Shah ahead of the Gujarat elections.
"The
government is not closed to the option of a judicial probe in the entire episode," Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters last evening.
The BJP has also seized on former Home Secretary GK Pillai's allegation that
Mr Chidambaram bypassed him, "called a lower functionary in the Intelligence Bureau and totally rewrote the affidavit."
"Can a Home Minister behave in such an irresponsible manner?" Ravi Shankar Prasad questioned.
Mr Chidambaram has said that the revised affidavit was "absolutely correct". "As a minister I accept full responsibility for the affidavit and it is disappointing that the former home secretary who is equally responsible wants to distance himself from that now," he said on Monday, reacting to Mr Pillai's allegation.