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CBI refuses to share ‘case dairy’ in Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case with home ministry

Neeraj Chauhan,TNN | Jun 13, 2014, 04.54 AM IST

CBI refuses to share 'case dairy' in Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case with home ministry
Top CBI sources said they will not give its “case diary” to home ministry at any cost and will abide by the procedures of CrPC, which allows them to only share it with the court.
NEW DELHI: With CBI unwilling to share its investigation document – ‘case dairy’ — with the home ministry, the prosecution sanction for former Intelligence Bureau special director Rajinder Kumar and three other officers in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case is likely to get stuck.

Top CBI sources said they will not give its “case diary” to home ministry at any cost and will abide by the procedures of CrPC, which allows them to only share it with the court.

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CBI is also wary of sharing its ‘investigation details’ with the home ministry in the Ishrat case because it has faced the music in Supreme Court earlier, where a report meant for the court was shared with a minister. In the coal scam last year, CBI had shared its status report with former law minister Ashwani Kumar for which it was slammed by the apex court. Kumar lost his job because of the blunder.

Case diary is the record of investigation done on each day in a prescribed format, which is maintained by the investigating officer.

CBI also feels giving case dairy to the government (a ministry) would set a bad precedent as the Gujarat encounter cases are being monitored by courts. To consider prosecution sanction for IB officers Rajinder Kumar, P Mittal, M K Sinha and Rajiv Wankhede, home ministry has asked CBI to provide the “case dairy”.

It is believed that home ministry may now refuse to give prosecution sanction to CBI against the IB officers. CBI has already filed two charge-sheets in the case but trial is pending in the absence of prosecution sanction.

(​File photo: Ishrat Jahan’s mother Shamima Kauser (left) and sister Nusrat at a press conference in Mumbai on July 11, 2013. )

READ ALSO: Gujarat govt reinstates IPS officer GL Singhal, accused in Ishrat Jahan encounter case

CBI had last month, as first reported by TOI, had sought prosecution sanction from home ministry to prosecute four IB officers in connection with the fake encounter killing of college student Ishrat, in which the charge sheet was filed in February. For seeking sanction, agency had sent its SP (Superintendent of Police) report to the home ministry, a practice usually followed for sanctions. Home ministry last week wrote to agency back that it also wanted the case dairy of Ishrat case.

According to the law, a case diary which is maintained by the Investigating officer can be shared only with the court. Under section 173 of the CrPC, 1973 the investigating officer, after concluding its probe in a given matter, files it final report, including case diary before the competent magistrate only.

In the cases where sanction for prosecution of an official is sought from the government, CBI provides them with details of the case, evidence against the official and other details to help the authority come to a view. Case diaries can not be shared with any authorities other than competent courts.

While IB, which comes under MHA, believes Ishrat Jahan encounter, in which the 19-year old student along with three others were killed by Gujarat crime branch in Ahmedabad in June 2004, was a genuine counter-terror operation, CBI believes otherwise.

Read more here – http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/CBI-refuses-to-share-case-dairy-in-Ishrat-Jahan-fake-encounter-case-with-home-ministry/articleshow/36456243.cms