Ishrat case: CBI questions ex-minister Praful Patel

Former minister of state (MoS) for home Praful Patel was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case on Tuesday.

On Monday, minister of state for law and parliamentary affairs, Pradipsinh Jadeja, and state advocate-general Kamal Trivedi were also grilled by the CBI.

In an irony of sorts, Patel arrived at the Special Task Force office in Gandhinagar at 11:15 am on Tuesday when not a single CBI official was present. Sources claimed that the sleuths were not present because they did not expect a former minister to be so punctual.

In fact, Patel had to call up the CBI officials, who were at their base at Border Security Force (BSF) complex at Chiloda then. The interrogation finally started around 11:45 am.

According to sources, the focus of the questioning was based on the information given by suspended IPS officer GL Singhal to the CBI.

Singhal had submitted audio tapes which secretly recorded a high-level meeting in November 2011 regarding the investigation into the Ishrat fake encounter. And, it was claimed to be attended by Patel, Jadeja, education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, IAS officer GC Murmu, IPS officer AK Sharma and others.

CBI believes that Patel played an important role in hampering the probe and had also tried to influence IPS officer Satish Verma, who was assisting CBI with the probe. 

The tape allegedly features Patel’s voice, where he can be heard claiming that he had called Verma to his house to discuss the probe and was locked in a four-hour-long meeting with him. Patel also allegedly asked Verma to help out the 18 persons named in the encounter.

According to sources, Patel dodged all questions related to that meeting and allegedly gave vague answers to the CBI.

The grilling lasted for about three hours.Patel was made MoS home in July 2010 following Amit Shah’s arrest in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.

 Now, all eyes are on Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, who is expected to appear before the CBI on Wednesday.

It is also learnt that the CBI is planning to summon Verma to find out whether anyone in the government tried either to influence him or hamper the probe.