Ishrat Jahan case: Did Chidambaram sign affidavit referring to her as an LeT member?

NEW DELHI: The Ishrat Jahan controversy flared afresh with the 51-page home ministry file on the case recording that former home minister P Chidambaram had signed the original affidavit describing the Mumbra teen as part of a Lashkar module.The latest revelations, telecast by Times Now, mean that Chidambaram approved the original affidavit as well as the one amended within two months in 2009 that stated there was no conclusive evidence against Ishrat.The RTI-based report saw Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman accuse Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi of having conspired with Chidambaram to target Narendra Modi who was then Gujarat CM. Chidambaram retorted by saying BJP was ignoring the “real” issue of the “fake” encounter in which Ishrat was killed.BJP on Monday hit out against Congress and P Chidambaram as it emerged from an RTI reply that the former home minister had signed the original affidavit describing Ishrat Jahan as part of a Lashkar module. “You underplayed a terror plot that could eliminate (Modi),” Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.Responding to the allegation, Chidambaram said a second affidavit was filed after thorough consultation with the then home secretary and the attorney general. “My public statements on why the second affidavit was filed after due and full consultation with the home secretary and the attorney general are self-explanatory.I have nothing to add,” he said in a statement. TOI had on March 3 first reported on Chidambaram making changes before clearing the second affidavit. On March 10, TOI also reported that Chidambaram’s notings and other documents were missing from the record. Chidambaram had responded to reports that he changed the second affidavit saying he had made “small editorial changes”.He had also said the first affidavit was an incomplete interpretation of facts that needed to be corrected. But the file papers reveal that not only did Chidambaram amend the second affidavit to drop references to Ishrat’s LeT link, he initialled the first affidavit which said the Lashkar team the Mumbra teenager was part of had wanted to kill Modi.Former home secretary GK Pillai had on February 28 told TOI that Chidambaram had personally made changes to drop the terror link, and only then sent the file to him for approval. Chidambaram later accepted having made “editorial changes” to the original affidavit and justified them by claiming that this was done to correct anomalies. As per the cover note of the first affidavit shared by Times Now, when Chidambaram approved the first affidavit on July 29, 2009, “updated based on IB input and draft affidavit provided by IB”, he made no mention of any anomalies nor did he object to the recording of Ishrat and her three associates’ affiliation with LeT.“Chidambaram is caught red-handed and now he cannot escape ... He has not only misused his position as home minister but also abused it by putting aside all inputs of intelligence agencies (revealing Ishrat as a close aide of Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai who was working for LeT),” minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju said.Accusing Chidambaram of creating bad blood between agencies ( CBI and IB), Rijuju said with one stroke of his pen, the former minister had sought to discredit an intelligence operation to track and neutralise an LeT module.“This kind of action demoralized genuine intelligence and police officers who have dedicated their service and life for national security,” he said.