It has uploaded revealing audio tapes of GL Singhal conversations on its website It has uploaded revealing audio tapes of GL Singhal conversations on its website.
Transcripts of the audio tapes that GL Singhal had submitted to Central Bureau of investigation (CBI) in Ishrat case have revealed that former minister of state (MoS) for home, Praful Patel, confessed to having tried to influence investigating officer, Satish Verma, to go easy on the state police officers involved in the fake encounter.
The recording is of a closed-door meeting of confidantes on November 19, 2011 where Singhal was also present.
Singhal, who had recorded the tapes secretly, has been named accused in the CBI chargesheet of Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case. IPS officer Satish Verma was aiding CBI in the investigations leading up to the chargesheet that was filed on July 6, 2013.
The recordings were posted on the website of news magazine, Tehelka, on Monday.
“I had called up Satish Verma to my house despite knowing the dangers of it,” Patel is heard saying in the conversation that was recorded by Singhal. “I had spoken to him (Verma) for more than four hours and had told him to help these 18 people (who were involved in the encounter).” The CBI had earlier submitted Singhal’s tapes to the trial court in a sealed envelope.
The Gujarat High Court (HC), had in 2009, made Satish Verma, a part of a Special Investigation Team it set up to probe the encounter. And two days after the meeting where the secret audio recording was made, SIT had filed its report before HC that the encounter was indeed fake.
The Tehelka report states besides Patel and Singhal, the meeting on November 19, 2011 also included Gujarat advocate-general Kamal Trivedi; senior IAS officer GC Murmu; Singhal’s lawyer Rohit Verma; then MoS (law) Pradipsinh Jadeja and another accused police officer, Tarun Barot. The JCP of the city crime branch, AK Sharma, was also present at the meet.
In the audio recording, Singhal is heard voicing concern that if the high court accepts SIT’s report and orders an FIR to be filed, then many police officers, who had earlier given statements supporting the claim that the encounter was genuine, might wilt. “We have done tremendous damage control in past one year.
They (SIT) have taken statements of 300 people but only two statements went against us. The remaining 298 statements remained consistent despite the fact that they were called several times,” says Singhal. “If a fresh FIR is filed, many of them will be rattled. Their confidence is very high but they may change if the SIT gets an option.”
The then law minister Pradipsinh Jadeja is heard telling others at the meeting that Amit Shah, who was the junior home minister before Patel but had to re
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