Cong-BJP slugfest over CBI chargesheet

• BJP said Cong misusing CBI, wants to know if she had links with terrorists
• It also says CBI chargesheet underplays role of terrorists
• Congress says court monitoring case and there is no foul play by CBI
• It also says it is Modi govt which is misusing state police

New Delhi (PTI): Congress and BJP on Thursday continued to spar over the CBI chargesheet in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case with the BJP chief Rajnath Singh demanding that government discloses if she had any links with terrorist groups. The Congress while hitting back at BJP over its charge that it was misusing CBI in the case said that the opposition party instead should be asked how its government in Gujarat was allegedly misusing the state police by taking "innocent lives". Singh defended the Gujarat government in the case, which has been held by CBI as fake, and demanded to know if Ishrat had any links with terror groups. "The track record of Ishrat Jahan should be checked if she had any links with terror groups and then make it public," he told reporters in Guwahati. BJP on Wednesday said the charge sheet "underplays" the role of LeT and terrorists. "More than 3,000 encounters took place in the country before 2003. But to get political mileage, a big hype is created in this case and the central government has brought CBI against the IB," the BJP President said. Nine years after 19-year-old Jahan was killed along with three others by the Gujarat Police, the CBI yesterday ruled out her involvement in terror activities and said she was accompanying Javed Sheikh, one of the four victims, on his trip to Ahmedabad as he was her employer. Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said those guilty of carrying out the alleged fake encounter should be punished. The statement bears significance as Home Ministry officials have been maintaining that there was not enough evidence against Intelligence Bureau Special Director Rajendra Kumar and three others in the alleged fake encounter case. The Home Ministry has been maintaining that CBI does not have enough evidence to prosecute IB officer Kumar in the alleged fake encounter case and it was unlikely to give sanction to CBI to prosecute the senior IPS officer. However, CBI has not sought the sanction from the Home Ministry, which is the cadre controlling authority of IPS officers.