File Photo: Ishrat Jehan

The home ministry has denied permission to prosecute a senior intelligence officer in the 11-year-old Ishrat Jehan murder case, saying the investigating agency does not have enough evidence of his involvement, ministry sources told NDTV.The Central Bureau of Investigation, which had been investigating the case, had accused Intelligence Bureau officer Rajinder Kumar of murder and criminal conspiracy and also booked him under the Arms Act. Along with him, the agency had also accused three serving IB officers -- P Mittal, MK Sinha and Rajiv Wankhede - of conspiracy and illegal confinement in the case.In a 200-odd page charge-sheet, however, the CBI had failed to mention a motive for the alleged involvement of the officers.College student Ishrat Jahan, 19, and three others were killed in 2004, allegedly in an encounter. The state police claimed they were terrorists who wanted to assassinate Narendra Modi, who was then chief minister of Gujarat.At the time, Mr Kumar was in charge of the IB operations in Gujarat. The police had claimed that they acted against Ishrat and the others on basis of information provided by the Intelligence Bureau.The CBI alleged that the four were killed in cold blood. Mr Kumar, the agency alleged, was not only involved in the conspiracy, but had also provided the weapons used by the Gujarat police to kill the four persons.An AK-56, the agency alleged, was planted at the scene of the shooting to portray the victims as terrorists; it alleged that the AK-56 was provided by Rajinder Kumar.The Intelligence Bureau said though its officers had alerted the Gujarat police to the possibility that Ishrat and the others could be affiliated to the Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, its officers did not authorise or participate in the killing.Seven officers of the Gujarat police accused in the case, are out on bail.