Times
of India: Madurai: Friday, 14 November 2014.
Three years
after taking up investigations, state criminal investigation department is all
set to file charge-sheet against then passport officer and other officers in
the department, pertaining to issue of a passport to Sameer Khan Pathan,
alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba operative, who was gunned down by Gujarat police in
2002.
CID had
initiated a fresh investigation to ascertain the culpability of passport
authorities, especially then passport officer in the case. Pathan was shot by
Ahmedabad City crime branch on October 22, 2002, claiming he was on a mission
to kill then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.
CID started
investigations in 2010, following an official communication from Gujarat police
and an FIR was registered against five persons, including passport officer and
three employees of the passport department for issuing a passport to Pathan. He
allegedly obtained passport in the name of Nawab Khan Haiyyatkhan Pathan from
here to visit Pakistan on January 13 in 1998, said sources.
CID officials
arrested two persons, a school teacher and a passport agent from Bhopal in
November 2012. Those arrested have been identified as Subash Vyas alias Guru,
40, resident of Shajapur and passport agent Abu Bakr, 60, resident of Bhopal.
More people,
including three employees of regional passport office (RPO), Bhopal, were put
under scanner for Pathan's passport, which he allegedly obtained in the name of
Nawab Khan Haiyyatkhan Pathan from here and had used it to visit Pakistan on
January 13, 1998, said sources. The passport was delivered to Pathan despite an
adverse report from the Shajapur police.
While Vyas
was arrested for arranging a school-leaving certificate and a ration card from
Akodiya village in Shajapur district, Abu Bakr was picked up for processing the
passport application form without proper verification.
After
Pathan's encounter, then DCP (Ahmedabad) DG Vanzara, had held a press
conference and told media that Pathan had undergone a terrorist training from
LeT in Pakistan in 1998 on a passport acquired from Bhopal. The officer also
alleged that Pathan was trained to kill Modi and Vishwa Hindu Prashid (VHP)
leader Praveen Togadia.
Pathan's
killing had courted a controversy following an RTI application from Gujarat
deputy inspector general (DIG) (armed units) Rajkot Rahul Sharma at the office
of Gujarat director general of police (DGP), seeking details of the encounter.
There is also
a contradiction in issue of date of passport and Pathan's alleged journey to
Pakistan with it. During trials in Gujarat court, then passport officer of
Bhopal, T D Sharma, testified that a passport in the name of Nawab Khan was
delivered only on March 27, 1998, and it was not conspiracy.
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