CBI seeks affidavit info, law miny’s take pending

NEW DELHI: The Union home ministry has sought the opinion of the law ministry on the CBI seeking files pertaining to the two Ishrat Jahan case affidavits it filed in the Gujarat high court.

The CBI sought the files on June 21 and the home ministry then referred the matter to the law ministry seeking its opinion on whether the confidential information was relevant to the investigation. The affidavits were filed within a gap of two months in 2009 by RVS Mani, an undersecretary in the internal security division of the home ministry. The CBI has already questioned Mani in the regard.

But Mani has alleged that during interrogation he was pressured by the investigators to provide facts he had no knowledge about.

The first affidavit filed on August 6, 2009 says Ishrat and her acquaintance Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai were members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), but the second affidavit filed on September 30, 2009 said, at the time of filing the first affidavit the primary concern of the government was to see inputs gathered by the security agencies and their efforts were not discredited. But it should be clear such inputs do not constitute conclusive proof and it is for the state government and the state police to act on them.

Sources say, the CBI was trying to find out what made the home ministry change its affidavit.