Ishrat Jahan Fake Encounter Case: MHA Denies Sanction to Prosecute Ex-IB Official Rajender Kumar, Others

In a major development related to Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case of Gujarat, the central government has denied the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) permission to prosecute a former top official of Intelligence Bureau (IB), Rajender Kumar, and his three colleagues.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said on Monday that the sanction was denied after a detailed examination of facts, circumstances and records made available to it in connection with the case of 2004, reported PTI.

The four accused were charged with criminal conspiracy, while Kumar was also charged with murder by the CBI.

"After a detailed examination of facts, circumstances and records made available to the MHA in respect of the case, the sanction was denied," PTI quoted an MHA spokesperson as saying.

CBI reportedly depended only on circumstantial evidences and that could not be the ground for giving sanction in the case, the report said.

Kumar, who retired as a special director of IB in 2013, and the other three accused -- MK Sinha, Rajiv Wankhede and T Mittal -- were allegedly involved in the conspiracy involving the killing of Ishrat Jahan and three other suspected terrorists in an encounter on the outskirts of Ahmedabad in 2004. Kumar, an IPS officer of 1979 batch, was then posted as the joint director of IB in Ahmedabad.