NEW DELHI: Former under secretary in the Home Ministry RVS Mani has come out with new allegations against ex-Union minister P Chidambaram, claiming the latter altered the affidavit in the Ishrat Jahan case to allegedly fix Narendra Modi.
It was Mani who had drafted the first affidavit in the case in August 2009 along with the Director, concluding that Ishrat and the three men killed with her were LeT operatives.
He had also objected to the probe by CBI in alleged fake encounter. Mani said he was handed the second affidavit and asked to file it and he had to obey the order as per the CCS conduct rules. Mani said: “It was not drafted at my level. My two immediate seniors did not draft as far as I remember. If it has been drafted above that... Somebody said you go and file it that is the order of the government, so I went and signed it.”
Mani also went a step further alleging that CBI’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) officer Satish Verma, probing Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, was engineering evidence.
He had also written to his senior officers in June 2013 claiming that Verma was trying to implicate senior Home Ministry officials. Express had first broke the story in 2013.
Earlier, former Home Secretary G K Pillai had revealed that the Ishrat Jahan affidavit was changed by Chidambaram and he was not informed about it. He went on to claim that the draft was dictated by Chidambaram himself.
Now with Mani’s revelation, Chidambaram is in for more trouble as the Centre has decided to examine the files related to the case. A Home Ministry official told Express that some files still need to be traced and after examining all, they will decide the next course of action.
Meanwhile, the BJP launched an attack on the UPA regime particularly the former Home Minister.