Ishrat case: BJP cites role of then Home Minister, Prime Minister in changing affidavit

New Delhi BJP today alleged that the decision to change the affidavit in Ishrat Jahan encounter case was taken at the political level involving the then Home Minister P Chidambaram then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi and asked Congress to come clean on itP Chidambaram and Manmohan SinghParliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu charged that CBI was misused by the then UPA government to harass its political opponent and defame the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi who is now Prime Minister He said the issue needs to be debated and discussed in Parliament and appropriate action needs to be takenFirst it was LashkareTaibas website secondly it was David Headleys statement and thirdly it was central government affidavit in the Gujarat High Court and Gujarat Police also said it IB has said it In spite of all these they changed the affidavitNow another startling revelation by former Home Secretary G K Pillai who is saying that the decision to change the affidavit was taken at the political levelPolitical level means the then Home Minister P Chidambaram Prime Minister and Congress President These are the three people who were at the helm of affairs Naidu told reporters here He also cited former Under Secretary in Home Ministry R V S Manis statement that he was forced and torturedThe torturing of government officer by other agency at the behest of political leadership you can understand how much misuse was done by the previous government with regard to CBI How political opponents were harassed The entire plan was to stop Narendra Modi defame Narendra Modi implicate Narendra Modi he saidCongress party should come clean instead of simply denying it What do you say What is the justification for change in affidavit Do you have an answer explain he saidNaidu said his government was ready to discuss all matters in Parliament Leader of Congress party in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said it would be better if Chidambaram speaks on the matter I do not have details on it It would be better if Chidambaram speaks on it I do not want to comment on it Kharge saidCongress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi had accused BJP of spreading a lie about AmericanPakistani terrorist David Headley and said it was very unfortunate that the ruling party was resorting to false propagandaThe trigger for the recent political battle is the interview of Mani who had filed two affidavits In the interview Mani alleged he was tortured to implicate senior IB officials in the case to project the encounter killing of Ishrat and other three LeT terrorists in Ahmedabad in 2004 as fakeMani suggested that Chidambaram was behind the decision to file the second affidavit He alleged that the then chief of Special Investigation Team SIT going into the case a CBI official was after him and an attempt was made to question the quality of professional inputs by the intelligence agencies on Ishrat and other terroristsSpeaking on the matter CPIM Politburo member Brinda Karat said there has been an encounter killing Whether or not Ishrat Jahan was an LeT operative is a different issue and that issue is before the Supreme Court Let the Supreme Court come to its own conclusion But the basic issue here is that it was an encounter killing she saidRoad Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said at that time the Congress party and former Home Minister Chidambaram had done some activities which were antinationalIt is sort of helping terrorists and the issue should be investigated and the culprits should be punished Gadkari said