CBI questions senior IB officer in Ishrat Jehan encounter case

Probe into the Ishrat Jehan encounter case has reached the doors of Intelligence Bureau whose Special Director-rank officer was questioned by CBI on the input generated in 2004 that Lashkar-e-Taiba was planning to kill Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
The 1979 batch IPS officer was summoned to the CBI headquarter where he was asked about the input generated about the possible assassination attempt on Modi, an information used by the Gujarat Crime Branch.
During the questioning which took place recently, the officer claimed that the input was genuine to the best of his knowledge and there was threat to Modi's life in the aftermath of 2002 riots from the terrorists groups, especially LeT.

When asked about the encounter, the officer retorted at a CBI investigator saying giving input does not mean that police would start carrying out encounters. He said he did his duty by sending this alert and he was not at all involved in the encounter.
CBI sources said the officer was handling Gujarat affairs in 2004 when the said input was generated.
The CBI has also analysed intelligence input generated from the IB here cautioning the Gujarat police about LeT's plan to attack BJP leaders L K Advani, Narendra Modi and VHP leader Pravin Togadia, they said.
The probe agency will also investigate the inputs received by the Gujarat Police that led to identification of a blue car in which Ishrat was travelling, as the vehicle in which the alleged terrorists were travelling, they said.

The CBI on the instruction of the Gujarat High Court took over the probe of the fake encounter in which 19-year-old Ishrat, Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004 allegedly by Crime Branch team led by DIG D G Vanzara.