Ishrat Jahan case: Petty informers villain of the piece

IPS officer G L Singhal had never imagined that two petty informers sourced by him could trigger a nationwide controversy apart from putting top police officers and politicians in a spot in Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case.

Ashad and Ovaish — the two informers sourced by Singhal — had actually helped the joint director of the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau (SIB), Rajinder Kumar, carry out the fake encounters of Ishrat and three others on June 15, 2004.

Apparently, the confessions of the two have put the blame almost entirely on Kumar for masterminding the fake encounter. According to a confession made by a policeman, who had served in the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) and was part of the encounter squad, Ashad and Ovaish had become sources of Singhal, the then assistant commissioner of police with the DCB, in late 2003. The duo was introduced to Kumar by DG Vanzara.

Sources claimed that Kumar and Vanzara, being top officials of elite security agencies and enjoying excellent rapport, had indulged in operations to find out terror modules. Around that time, Vanzara had also apprised Kumar of the activities of the two informers.

The policeman further confessed to the CBI that “Rajinder Kumar had taken over Ashad and Ovaish completely and both had been assigned specific roles by the IB in the encounter”.

It was the DCB and the IB that had given the code names, C1 and C2, to Ashad and Ovaish, respectively. The policeman had divulged their names to CBI sleuth G Kalaimani and IPS officer Satish Verma by requesting them not to reveal their identities. But the CBI’s attempts to nail them have gone in vain. Now, it has launched a desperate hunt for the duo.