By IANS,
New Delhi : In what could cast doubts over the functioning of Delhi Polices’ elite anti-terrorism wing – Special Cell, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has demanded action against its celebrated officer Ravinder Tyagi for framing two police informers on terror charges.
The probe agency has made the demand in its report filed in a sessions court.
Tyagi incidentally was also part of the operation in the Jamia Nagar shootout in September in which two alleged terrorists and Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma were killed.
“This is obviously going to put a serious question mark on Tyagi’s functioning. But more importantly more questions will be asked of the Jamia Nagar shootout, which is already steeped in controversy,” a senior intelligence official told IANS.
According to the CBI closure report filed in a sessions court, Tyagi, a sub-inspector with the special cell helped to fabricate evidence against Mohammed Arif Qamar and Irshad Ali, who the police claimed were Al-Badr terrorists.
Qamar and Ali, both from Kashmir, were arrested by the police from Mukarba Chowk on G.T. Karnal Road in north Delhi in February 2006. Both were actually police informers to the special cell, says the CBI.
The CBI filed a closure report in the case Nov 11 in a sessions court declaring that the two were innocent. The case will be now heard Nov 27.
“We will have to wait for what the court says on that date, and it will be interesting to see if a harsh order is awaited (against Tyagi),” said a CBI official.
Besides, the CBI has told the court that the two men were innocent.
The investigating agency has also sought action against two other special cell officers – Vinay Tyagi and Subhash Bhatt. They, however, were not involved in the Jamia Nagar shootout.
Qamar and Ali are currently lodged in Tihar jail.
Tyagi, who won a President’s Police Medal for Gallantry at this year’s Republic Day, led a team along with Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma in the Sep 19 Jamia Nagar shootout, which some claimed was staged.
Apart from Ravinder Tyagi and the two officers, the CBI has told police that four other special cell officers are being investigated in the Al-Badr case. Two of them, Sanjay Dutt and Rahul Kumar, were also part of the Batla House encounter with Tyagi.
Delhi Police claimed to have arrested Qamar and Ali from a Jammu and Kashmir Roadways bus with pistols and two kilograms of RDX.
However, according to the probe agency, the bus tickets produced by Delhi Police were not seized from their personal search but shown as recovered on Feb 10, 2006 – a day after the arrests.
According to the CBI, the police in its charge sheet said arms and ammunition were delivered to Qamar and Ali by Sheikh Pervez and Faiyan Ahmed, both residents of Srinagar, but no efforts were made to interrogate these people.