Supreme Court agrees to hear contempt plea against P Chidambaram in Ishrat case

The Supreme court on Tuesday agreed to hear a plea seeking suo motu contempt action against former home P Chidambaram for perjury and misleading the apex court and the Gujarat High Court on the alleged LeT links of Ishrat Jehan and also seeking quashing of criminal prosecution, suspension and other actions taken against Gujarat cops in the 2004 alleged fake encounter killing of Ishrat in view of the recent testimony of jailed LeT operative David Headley. 

The plea has also sought contempt against the then Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director for misleading and holding back information about Ishrat being a Laskhar-e-Taiba operative.

The plea assumes significant in the light of former home secretary G K Pillai’s statement against Chidambaram recently in the case.

Petitioner M L Sharma, a practicing advocate, mentioned the matter for its urgent hearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India T S Thakur which agreed to hear the matter.

Last month, the Pakistani-American terrorist Headley, who had conspired with the LeT in plotting the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, had told a trial court that Ishrat was a Lashkar-e-Taiba operative.

Referring to Headley’s statement, which was recorded through video conference, Sharma said Headley’s statement is significant as it conclusively establishes the fact that Ishrat was an LeT operative.

He sought initiation of perjury and contempt proceedings against the then Home Minister Chidambaram and also the then CBI director for concealment of facts.

Sharma has said that the CBI too had concealed this fact in the Supreme Court in its affidavit. CBI filed a charge sheet and supplementary charge sheet declaring Ishrat as innocent Muslim student and prosecuted various police officers.

Raising a question of law, Sharma, asked if the protection of life and personal liberty that is guaranteed under constitution's article 21 to Indian citizens was also available to the LeT members. He also asked if the killing of a terrorist in any manner was an offence under the penal code and police personnel involved are liable to be punished.

Sharma said the facts are now undisputed that Ishrat and her associates- Javed Shaikh, Zeeshan Johar and Amjad Ali Rana were terrorists who were killed by Gujarat Police in the encounter.

The plea sought a direction to close criminal proceedings and action taken in FIRs lodged by CBI against the Gujarat Police personnel and others, saying it was unconstitutional within the judicial facts and evidences of Headley.

It also sought a direction from the court declaring that killing of a terrorist is not an offence under Indian law and proper compensation be paid to the state police personnel in the interest of justice.