Prasad then tutors Kumar to say that he should reply to the question saying that he had not seen that paper.
Union Home Ministry official BK Prasad, who led the investigation into the 'missing documents' in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case, informed a witness about the questions he would ask and also tutored him on how to answer them, reports The Indian Express.
The probe was being carried out to find out the circumstances under which the UPA government dropped references in the second affidavit to Ishrat's alleged connection to Lashkar-e-Toiba, and led to a CBI probe into her June 15, 2004 encounter.
According to an IE phone recording on 25 April, 2016, BK Prasad was reportedly talking to Ashok Kumar, Joint Secretary (Parliament, Hindi Division and Nodal Officer for monitoring of court cases) in the Department of Commerce. The report says Prasad told Kumar that while giving his statement, he would be asked whether he had seen the paper (belonging to the Ishrat Jahan case). Prasad then tutors Kumar to say that he should reply to the question saying that he had not seen the paper. He then reportedly tells Kumar that if he gives a different response, then questions would be raised about him having played a role in the disappearance of the files.
Kumar was supposed to give his statement the next day of the phone call. He was Director in the Internal Security division of the Home Ministry from 1 March, 2011 to 23 December, 2011, which was in-charge of the Ishrat Jahan case at that time.
While Kumar has not denied getting a call from Prasad regarding the inquiry, he did not give details about the conversation. Meanwhile, Prasad gave a statement to IE denying that officers responded to his questions based on any tutoring as suggested by the report.
Prasad is a 1983 batch IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre and was supposed to retire on May 31 but his service was extended till July 31.
Meanwhile, former UPA Home Minister P Chidambaram who was in hot water over the missing files issue said, "The report comprehensively exposes the fake controversy created by the NDA government on the two affidavits filed by the Central government in the Ishrat Jahan case. It completely vindicates the position that I had taken on the two affidavits.
"I take full responsibility for filing the 'further affidavit' which was absolutely the correct thing to do.
"The moral of the story is that even a doctored report (of the Inquiry Officer) cannot hide the truth. The real issue is whether Ishrat Jahan and three others were killed in a genuine encounter or a fake encounter. Only the trial of the case, pending since July 2013, will bring out the truth."
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