Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday accused Congress of hatching a ‘conspiracy’ in Ishrat Jahan and Malegaon blast cases, a day after NIA chief Sharad Kumar said there was no evidence linking arrested Army officer Lt Col Prasad Purohit with the Samjhauta blast case.
“The revelation that the NIA has made is very important. The manner in which this whole situation is now emerging, facts which have come out in the NIA investigation about Ishrat Jahan are very surprising,” he said.
“This is a clear example of where things can lead you if you use investigative agency under some conspiracy, if you use agencies only for political reasons,” he said attacking Congress without naming it.
Javadekar was responding to a question about statements by the NIA in Malegaon and Samjhauta cases as well as alleged different stands taken by Home Minister P Chidambaram during UPA regime on Ishrat Jahan case.
Ishrat was killed in an encounter by Gujarat Police in 2004. A court-monitored CBI probe had found the encounter to be fake and a major row erupted after the UPA government filed in September 2009 a second affidavit which, unlike the first, did not make any reference to her suspected LeT links.
Firing a fresh salvo at Sonia Gandhi over the Ishrat Jahan issue, BJP yesterday suggested that the Congress chief had asked the then Home Minister P Chidambaram to file a second affidavit in the case as UPA could “tolerate terrorists but not Narendra Modi as Prime Minister”.
PM, Shah trying to derail trial in fake encounter case: Congress
Congress on Wednesday dismissed as ‘bundle of lies’ the BJP’s charge that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi gave any direction to the then Home Minister P Chidambaram in the Ishrat Jahan case.
It also sought to take the battle to the ruling party's camp, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah of attempting to "derail" the judicial process in the fake encounter case and asked them to tell "the real motive behind desperation to shut down" the ongoing trial. “Unlike the RSS, Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi never intervened or gave any suggestion to the then Home Minister P Chidambaram or any other person or authority in Government qua any administrative matter including the Ishrat Jahan case,” party’s chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala said in a statement.