Guilty should be punished in Ishrat case: Shinde

The guilty in the Ishrat Jahan shootout case should be punished, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said Wednesday while denying that the Intelligence Bureau chief had written to him in connection with the case.

"Those guilty should be punished ... the IB chief has not written to me," said Shinde when reporters here sought his comments on the alleged role of senior Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer Rajinder Kumar in the 2004 Ishrat Jahan shootout case.

In its charge sheet filed last week, the Central Bureau of Investigation termed the shootout as fake but did not name IB officer Rajinder Kumar.

There were media reports that IB chief Asif Ibrahim had written to Shinde in connection with the case.

"Every agency has an identity. I can't say anything till we go into the detail on the IB's role," said Shinde.

Mumbai college student Ishrat Jahan, Pranesh Gopinath Pilai, Amjad Ali and Jishan Johar were killed by Gujarat Police in a shootout in Ahmedabad.