Ishrat Jahan case: Probe panel says files 'removed knowingly or unknowingly'; Congress refutes

Congress on Wednesday dismissed findings of an inquiry panel that files relating to Ishrat Jahan case went missing in September 2009 when party leader P Chidambaram was the Home Minister.

"I do not think that is correct. I do not think any important file could go missing when Chidambaram was the Home Minister. He was a very hands-on minister," senior spokesman Ajay Maken told reporters.

At that time, Maken was the deputy of Chidambaram in the Home Ministry but was not looking after the Internal Security division to which the file belonged. Reports earlier had it that the one-man inquiry panel probing the missing files related to the case has concluded that the papers were "removed knowingly or unknowingly or misplaced" in September, 2009.

Only one paper out of the five documents related to the controversial alleged Ishrat fake encounter case that went missing from the Home Ministry was found, said Additional Secretary in the Home Ministry B K Prasad in his inquiry report submitted to Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi.

Ishrat, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in the encounter with Gujarat Police on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004. The Gujarat Police had then said those killed in the encounters were LeT terrorists and had landed in Gujarat to kill the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi.