Charging the CBI for not probing role of a Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-E-Taiba (LET) in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case, the BJP on Thursday alleged that the agency was acting at the behest of the Congress with a one-point agenda to frame the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
"We would like to ask the CBI as to why did it leave out the LET angle during investigation in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case when there was overwhelming evidence about presence of Pakistan-based terror outfit's militants in Gujarat in 2004," the BJP Deputy Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ravishankar Prasad said.
The CBI has also not tried to find out as to what the 19 year-old Jahan was doing in Gujarat and whether she had any rapport with Javed Sheikh, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar - all said to be LET operatives, Prasad said and claimed that even the Pakistan-based terror outfit had acknowledged Jahan and Sheikh as martyrs in its website.
But, the premier investigative agency has chosen to ignore all this informations about Jahan's background and directed its investigation with one-point agenda to nail the Gujarat Chief Minister, he said. The CBI has also ignored an Intelligence Bureau (IB) report about presence of some LET militants in Gujarat which was corroborated by another LET operative, George Headley, during interrogation by the U.S. agencies, he said and wondered as to why the investigative agency chose not to probe terror angle in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case despite credible inputs put out by the intelligence officials.
"The IB report goes to the PM and Union Home Minister ....its report should have been taken seriously and acted upon," Prasad said and regretted efforts being made by some Congress leaders to malign the agency and demoralise its officers engaged in the task of counter-insurgency works. Referring to the CBI chargesheet submitted before the Gujarat High Court on Wednesday in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case, Prasad said, "the CBI has submitted a collusive chargesheet in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case based on biased investigation."
"The credibility of the CBI is well-known....it has been given specific task by the UPA government to implicate the Gujarat Chief Minister in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case, even any shreds of evidence of his involvement and to protect the corrupt central ministers," the senior BJP leader said. With the BJP's prospects in the next general elections hinging on Modi's charisma, Prasad launched an all out defence of the Gujarat Chief Minister and asked whether any other chief minister has been targetted in encounter cases -fake or real ones - in any part of the country in the manner that Modi was being cornered by the CBI at the behest of the Congress.
Encounters - fake of real - have taken place in states like Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra....has any chief minister been targetted in the manner that Modi is being targetted without evidence? Prasad asked. It is clear that the Congress is scared of Modi, he said and claimed that the latter's popularity will grow at the same pace his adversaries try to target him.
On the UPA government's decision to seek promulgation of an ordinance for implementation of the food security bill, the senior BJP leader said that it proves that the Congress president Sonia Gandhi wants to leave her stamp on it. The hurried manner in which the UPA government has taken the ordinance route to implement the food security bill, proves that Gandhi wants to impose her individual stamp on the measure and not that of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he said.
On the Congress proposing to ride on the food security bill to turn the tables on the BJP in next general elections, Prasad said that the ruling party will meet its Waterloo at the hustings whenever it takes place.
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