Ishrat Jahan case: Chidambaram has betrayed the nation, says M J Akbar

'Chidambaram is trying to fool us as he has omitted the name of a terrorist from the document, we don't call it editorial change we call it betraying the nation,' the BJP spokesperson said

BJP spokesperson M J Akbar Tuesday ridiculed former union home minister P Chidambaram's remarks with regard to tweaking content of the second affidavit in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case and accused the later of betraying the nation.

The Bharatiya Janata Party snubbed Congress' statement and accused it of fabricating tales.

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"Editorial change means that you remove a comma or add a semicolon. Mr. Chidambaram is trying to fool us as he has omitted the name of a terrorist from the document, we don't call it editorial change we call it betraying the nation," said M.J. Akbar.

Earlier in the day, Chidambaram said that then home secretary G K Pillai went through affidavits related to the Ishrat Jahan encounter case thrice, and added that as minister, he only made 'editorial' changes to them as is a compulsive habit with lawyers like him.

He asked, "Tell me which part of the (second) affidavit is wrong, which sentence of the affidavit is wrong?"

"What does that paragraph in the second affidavit say? The second affidavit says: "The first affidavit has been misinterpreted. Intelligence Bureau only shares intelligence with the state government, intelligence information is not conclusive proof; it is for the investigation agency to gather evidence and present it to a court," Chidambaram told media on the sidelines of a book release function here.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh had earlier ordered an 'internal inquiry' to probe how files concerning the affidavits filed in the Ishrat Jahan case have gone missing.

Former home secretary G K Pillai had also claimed that there was "political interference" in the case which led to the deletion of reference to Lashkar-e-Taiba from the revised affidavit filed in 2009.

Ishrat Jahan was killed in an alleged fake encounter in Gujarat in 2004.

The first affidavit was filed on the basis of inputs from Maharashtra and Gujarat Police besides the Intelligence Bureau where it was said that the 19-year-old girl from Mumbai outskirts was a Lashkar-e-Taiba activist but it was ignored in the second affidavit.

The second affidavit, claimed to have been drafted by Chidambaram, said there was no conclusive evidence to prove that Ishrat was a terrorist.