A meeting of the CBI and IB heads was held in the presence of Union Home Secretary R K Singh on Thursday, in the wake of the CBI’s move to summon IB special director Rajendra Kumar in connection with the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case.
During the meet, CBI director Ranjit Sinha said his agency had necessary evidence to support the summons issued to Kumar. But IB director Asif Ibrahim opined that the probe should be kept confidential, to which Sinha concurred. The CBI sources said the agency had got evidence from an “independent witness”, showing Kumar’s alleged involvement in the encounter. Kumar was supposed to appear for questioning on June 14, but sought exemption on personal grounds. In all probability, he would be questioned next week.
The CBI had earlier questioned the officer, but had summoned him for a second time now as his replies appeared to be “diversionary” in nature. During the last round of questioning, Kumar, who was posted in the Gujarat state Intelligence Bureau in 2004, reasoned out with the CBI team that an input given by an intelligence unit does not imply that the police should do an encounter. He said the input given by him regarding a threat to state Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s life from terror groups was genuine to the best of his knowledge. He had defended himself saying his job was to give inputs.
Former CBI director A P Singh was also present at the meeting, chaired by the Home Secretary.