In a rebuke to Pillai, Chidambaram had claimed that both Pillai and the then director Intelligence Bureau were consulted before drafting the second affidavit when it was brought to his notice that the first affidavit was ambiguous.
An already complex Ishrat Jehan controversy took yet another intriguing turn on Tuesday when former Union home secretary G K Pillai claimed that he was bypassed and not consulted when his boss, the then home minister P Chidambaram, recalled and changed the second affidavit.
In a rebuke to Pillai, Chidambaram had claimed that both Pillai and the then director Intelligence Bureau were consulted before drafting the second affidavit when it was brought to his notice that the first affidavit was ambiguous.
"As a minister, I did not want the Central security agencies and their efforts to be discredited," said Chidambaram defending decision to remove portions from the affidavit that linked Ishrat with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
Refuting charges, Pillai said Chidambaram had called a lower functionary from the Intelligence Bureau and totally rewrote the affidavit. And the draft was dictated by him so no one else could say anything.
"He should not say that the Intelligence Bureau and the home secretary were on board. It was purely his decision," Pillai said.
Pillai remarks can give BJP more fire power to train guns at Chidambaram who is already facing a tough time on account of his son Karti's alleged involvement in Aircel-Maxis scam.
BJP MP from Bihar RK Singh, who served as home secretary during Chidambaram's tenure as home minister, charged Congress for playing politics with anti-terror operations.
"When the Intelligence Bureau told you about her (Ishrat Jehan) background and you filed an affidavit, then what was the need to change the affidavit? This means you were playing politics with anti-terror operations," said Singh.
Ishrat was killed along with three others in 2004 on the outskirts of Ahmedabad by Gujarat ATS that claimed she was part of a plot to assassinate the then chief minister Narendra Modi.
In 2009, the Union home ministry under Chidambaram had submitted an affidavit in the Gujarat high court, which citing intelligence reports described Ishrat a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative. However, a month later, the union home ministry filed a revised affidavit removing all references to Ishrat's alleged LeT terror links.
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