Rajnath demands opposition's apology over Headley's revelation on Ishrat Jahan

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday sought apology from the opposition political parties for leveling false allegation against the BJP after LeT terrorist David Coleman Headley's deposition on Ishrat Jahan.

"You must have heard what David Headley has just said in Court, that Ishrat Jahan was a suicide bomber. Ishrat Jahan regarding whom many accusations were levelled against our leader, tell me, will the accusing political parties now apologise to the nation for trying to fool the people?" asked Rajnath Singh while addressing a rally here.

David Headley, convicted in the US for his role in the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, during his deposition, told the Mumbai court that Ishrat Jahan was a LeT operative.

The incident had occurred in 2004 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat while Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah was the state Home Minister.

Shah's name had cropped up in the Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case. The CBI, however, in 2014 gave a clean chit to the BJP president citing insufficient evidence. The CBI had submitted that Shah was not named in the FIR.

It was on June 15, 2004, that Ishrat Jahan Raza and three others Pranesh Pillai (alias Javed Gulam Sheikh), Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in an encounter by the Ahmedabad Police.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by Karnail Singh, was set up to probe the case further. The SIT sent four teams to Srinagar, Delhi, Lucknow and Nashik to probe Ishrat's alleged terrorist links.

On November 21, 2011, the SIT told the Gujarat High Court that the Ishrat Jahan encounter was not genuine.

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After the SIT filed its report, the High Court ordered that a complaint under Indian Penal Code Section 302 (murder) has to be filed against those involved in the fake encounter, in which over 20 policemen, including senior IPS officers, were involved.