New Delhi, Jul 10: Amid a raging controversy over the killing of Mumbai girl Ishrat Jahan by Gujarat police in an alleged fake encounter, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde today said he was trying to find out if she was a terrorist.
“Wo to main malumat le raha hoon abhi (I am trying to get the information),” Shinde told reporters when asked whether or not the 19-year-old girl killed was a terrorist.
The Home Minister, however, accepted that divergence of opinion exists between Intelligence Bureau (IB), which coordinated with Gujarat police, and CBI probing the incident over the issue.
“I know there has been difference of opinion but we will get all the information,” Shinde said.
The Home Minister denied he had received any letter from IB Director Asif Ibrahim lodging protests against CBI investigation suggesting involvement of one of the agency's Special Directors—Rajinder Kumar.
“Why (would) the IB chief write to me? He would come and speak to me. He has not written anything to me on this line,” he said.
Ishrat and her friend Javed Shaikh, alias Pranesh Pillai and two Pakistani nationals Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar, were killed near Ahmedabad by a team of Gujarat Crime Branch officials on June 15, 2004 after being illegally confined to police custody for nearly ten days.
The probe was later handed over to CBI on the direction of the Gujarat High Court.
