The Ministry of Home Affairs on Monday constituted a one-man inquiry committee to investigate missing files related to the case of the alleged fake encounter of Lashkar-e-Taiba member Ishrat Jahan, reported PTI. The papers, which went missing from the Home Ministry, include the copy of an affidavit vetted by the Attorney General and submitted in the Gujarat High Court in 2009, and the draft of the second affidavit vetted by the AG in which changes were made. Two letters written by the then Home Secretary GK Pillai to the then Attorney General, the late GE Vahanvati, and the copy of the draft affidavit have also been untraceable, said the report. BK Prasad, Additional Secretary in the Home Ministry, will form the committee tasked with finding out the person responsible for keeping the files.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has accused the Congress, which led the United Progressive Alliance Government at the time, of changing the affidavit to defame Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was the chief minister of Gujarat back then. The second affidavit in the case was filed only two months after the first one. While the first affidavit held that the four people killed in the 2004 encounter were LeT terrorists, the second one said that there was no conclusive evidence to prove their terror links.

Former Home Secretary GK Pillai had claimed that as home minister, Congress leader P Chidambaram had recalled the file a month after the original affidavit was filed in the court. Chidambaram had responded saying that Pillai is equally responsible for the change in affidavit.