Former IB officer Rajinder Kumar was the brain behind declaring Ishrat a terrorist, says CBI

Nearly a decade after Ishrat was murdered along with her friend Javed Sheikh alias Parnesh Pillai in Gujarat and two others believed to be Pakistani nationals, the CBI filed a supplementary chargesheet naming Kumar, who was the then joint director of IB and posted in Gujarat.

He was charged with 120-B (criminal conspiracy) for 302 (murder) and other sections of Indian Penal Code besides various provisions of the Arms Act.

Kumar has been additionally charged under Arms Act with CBI alleging that he had provided arms to the accused on June 14, 2004, a day before the encounter took place.

The CBI alleged in its supplementary chargesheet that Kumar, who was the then joint director of IB, handed over arms and ammunition to G Singhal of Gujarat Police who passed them to Tarun Barot through Nizamuddin Sayeed. These arms and ammunition were used in executing the crime.

Along with Kumar, those named in the charge sheet are serving officers P Mittal, MK Sinha and Rajiv Wankhede, who have been booked for criminal conspiracy, wrongful confinement, kidnapping and wrongful concealment besides various sections of the Arms Act.

In its first chargesheet filed in the case on July 3 last year, CBI had named the four officers but not identified them as suspects, while terming the encounter as fake and a joint operation by IB and Gujarat Police.

IPS officers DG Vanzara, PP Pandey, Girish Singhal, besides Barot, NK Amin, JG Parmar and Anaju Chaudhary had been named as accused.

The CBI had said Ishrat and others were in the custody of Gujarat Police before being killed and, in fact, she and Javed had been interrogated by Kumar at a farmhouse on the outskirts of the city where they were kept in confinement.

All the four were taken to the encounter spot near Kotarpur Waterworks — blindfolded — before being shot dead in cold blood, CBI had said.