Seeking to support former Home Secretary GK Pillai’s charge against the then UPA government over the Ishrat Jahan case, BJP on Friday referred to two articles written by Arun Jaitley in which the Finance Minister had accused the Congress-led government changing affidavit to implicate Narendra Modi.
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“That second affidavit clarified what the real intention was”, said Chidambaram.
On being asked whether it was correct to believe that there political interference in the Ishrat Jahan case, Mani said it was “perfectly okay” to believe that. “You will have to ask the minister why he changed it, because none of us changed it”, Pillai had said.
Mr. Chidambaram said on Monday that he “accepted responsibility for the affidavit” and “it is disappointing that the Home Secretary who was equally responsible wanted to distance himself today”. “What Satish Verma did to me was unprecedented…On 21 June 2013, Satish Verma burnt me with cigarettes”, he told Times Now. “As the minister, I accept the responsibility”. “How can I distance myself from the government?”
Mani also hinted that the second affidavit had actually been filed on the directions of then home minister P Chidambaram.
“It was brought to my notice that the first affidavit was filed without my approval and it was being misinterpreted”. The second affidavit was filed after consulting top law officials. It was my duty to correct the first affidavit.
In a recent video-conferenced deposition before a Special court in Mumbai, Lashkar-e-Taiba operative David Coleman Headley from the USA jail said he had heard of Ishrat Jahan being a suicide bomber of LeT.
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He also said that perhaps Chidambaram was not acting on his own. “The only question is whether he got it done in consultation with the home secretary, no. Whether he consulted with the Information Bureau, no. He sat in his own office and dictated the draft and filed it. And the affidavit was approved by him and filed”, said Pillai. “The second affidavit says the central government did not address any issue relating to the merits or otherwise of the police action”, he said adding it was essentially concerned with dealing with allegations relating to intelligence inputs which were available with the Centre.
