Raking up the Ishrat Jahan case to target the previous UPA government, BJP leader Anurag Thakur today demanded in Lok Sabha that a forensic test be conducted to ascertain if a former Home Minister had signed the first affidavit which said she was an LeT terrorist.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Thakur alleged that during the UPA rule, the morale of intelligence agencies like IB and RAW had been broken.
He alleged that the particular former Home Minister did not serve the interest of the country but only the interest of his son, triggering protests by Congress members, led by Mallikarjun Kharge, who objected to the reference being made.
Speaker Sumitra Mahajan asked Thakur to refrain from naming the former Home Minister.
Thakur went on to say that the moment UPA government filed the second affidavit deleting “terrorist” reference of Ishrat, LeT website too removed her mention from its jihadi list.
He demanded that the Centre should initiate a forensic probe to find out if the former Home Minister had indeed signed the first affidavit.
Thakur also sought to know from the Congress party if it too believed that Ishrat Jahan was not a terrorist.
BJP has been alleging that P Chidambaram, as Home Minister, had amended an affidavit to delete “terrorist” references of Ishrat.
Chidambaram has denied it, saying the signing of the affidavit controversy was only to divert attention and the real issue at hand was whether the Ishrat Jahan encounter was fake.
Ishrat Jahan and her four accomplices were killed on the outskirts of Ahmadabad on June 15, 2004, by the Gujarat Police who said she was a part of an LeT module to kill Modi.