CBI grills IB officer Kumar again

Rajendra Kumar, special director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), was quizzed in connection with Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case on Tuesday. Kumar was interrogated by a team of senior officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) along with IPS officer Satish Verma at the guest house of the Border Security Force’s western headquarters in Chiloda area of Gandhinagar.

Kumar was grilled for about five hours from 10 am to 3 and then allowed to leave, ending all speculation about his arrest. CBI sources said they have evidence to indicate that Kumar was one of the officers to have interrogated Ishrat when she was taken into illegal custody of Gujarat police before being killed in a staged encounter.

They said the IB officer was questioned at length regarding the alleged interrogation of Ishrat and other inputs which suggest his role in the conspiracy leading to the encounter.

Sources further stated Kumar was evasive during questioning and kept on repeating that he could not remember the finer points of the incident as it happened nine years ago. They, however, also said that the agency did not have enough evidence to arrest the special IB director. Kumar was questioned by the chief investigating officer of Ishrat case, CBI deputy inspector-general, Mumbai, Sandip Tamgadge, inspector-general of police and other senior officers.

“Of course, it has statements that makes him part of a larger conspiracy. But CBI is struggling to get exact evidence to prove his role,” sources said. Kumar had earlier been summoned by CBI once before the questioning of retired IPS officer KR Kaushik. Kaushik was quizzed once by the CBI and Kumar’s recent round of questioning was primarily focused on the lines of Kaushik’s questioning. Sources said Kumar would again be summoned by the investigating agency within the next few days.