The report raises an important point that there was a discussion with regard to the supplementary affidavit with the then law minister Veerappa Moily but it was not recorded either by the joint secretary or the home secretary.
The report on missing papers from Ishrat Jahan files submitted on Wednesday though does not fix responsibility for five missing documents, it says were "removed knowingly or unknowingly or misplaced" between September 18 to 28, 2009, it indicates that there could be much more behind filing the supplementary affidavit.
The report raises an important point that there was a discussion with regard to the supplementary affidavit with the then law minister Veerappa Moily but it was not recorded either by the joint secretary or the home secretary.
"However, it is a fact that the discussion in the chamber of the Hon'ble law minister regarding the supplementary affidavit has not been recorded by the JS or the HS," the report notes down.
G K Pillai was the union home secretary then, while the internal security division was being headed by joint secretary Deverakonda Diptivilasa.
Sources said that this could form the basis of a further probe by a higher panel or even an agency.
So far the known facts are that the supplementary affidavit was changed by at the behest of the then union minister P Chidambaram. And Chidambaram has been candid enough to accept it.
"When it was brought to my notice that the first affidavit was ambiguous, it was my duty to correct it as a minister after consulting the home secretary, director intelligence bureau, and other officers," Chidambaram said earlier.
Explaining the rationale behind changing the affidavit, Chidambaram said, "It was essentially concerned dealing with allegations of intelligence inputs which were available with the central government and which are shared on a regular basis with state governments. The primary concern of central government was to see the intelligence inputs gathered by central security agencies and their efforts were not discredited. It should be clear to all, such inputs do not constitute the conclusive proof."
Chidambaram's retort had come in response to Pillai's statement in which he wondered why reference to Ishrat Jahan and three others as Lashkar operatives was deleted and it was done at the "political level".
Wrapping up investigations into missing papers from Ishrat Jahan file, one-man probe panel head by additional secretary B K Prasad has concluded that some papers were "removed knowingly or unknowingly or misplaced" between September 18 – 28, 2009, when P Chidambaram was the union home minister. During the probe, Prasad examined 11 officials who handled Ishrat Jahan case files.
The report concluded five documents as missing from the Ishrat files -- office copy of the letter and enclosure sent by the then home secretary to the attorney-general on September 18, 2009, office copy of the letter sent Home Secretary to the A-G on September 23, 2009, draft further affidavit as vetted by the A-G, draft further affidavit amended by home minister Chidambaram on September 24, 2009 and office copy of the further affidavit filed with the Gujarat High Court on September 29, 2009.
One document, letter sent by home secretary to A-G on September 18, 2009, was, however, retrieved from a computer hard disk.
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