Ishrat Case: Chidambaram’s Signatures on Contradicting Affidavits

The BJP has questioned Congress leaders – the Gandhis’ – role in hiding an attempt to eliminate a leader.

Former Home Minister P Chidambaram has been caught in the middle of the Ishrat Jahan controversy. (Photo: Reuters)

The files related to the encounter of Ishrat Jahan in 2009 in Gujarat have shown signatures of P Chidambaram on two different affidavits which make contradictory claims.

Chidambaram had claimed that the first affidavit in the case was filed without his consent. However, the files accessed by TV channel Times Now show his signature on both the affidavits.

Screenshot of Times Now showing the first affidavit. (Photo Courtesy: Times Now Screenshot)

Screenshot of Times Now showing the second affidavit. (Photo Courtesy: Times Now Screenshot)

Both the affidavits make contradictory statements on wheher the encounter of the young girl from Gujarat was fake or not. The two affidavits also make contradictory claims about her links to terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

On 29 Fenruary 2016, P Chidambaram had said that the first affidavit was filed without his consent and it was his responsibility to correct a factually wrong report.

BJP Trains Guns on Congress

Minister of Commerce and Industry and BJP member Nirmala Sitharaman has alleged that this was an elaborate plan by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi to “eliminate” then chief minister of Gujarat and current Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

File photo of BJP member and cabinet minister Nirmala Sitharaman. (Photo: IANS)

The entire Congress party is party to all this. It is not just the Home Minister. Sonia Gandhi worked actively on this theory and that is why she went around speaking about it. Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi should take complete responsibility for watching terror plot being made to eliminate a leader.

Nirmala Sitharaman, BJP Member, Minister of Commerce and Industry

Sitharaman questioned the Congress leaders’ political prowess and alleged that they made P Chidambaram a pawn in the elaborate plot.

Former Home Minister, P Chidambaram who allegedly signed off on contradicting affidavits in the Ishrat Jahan case. (Photo: Reuters)

Challenging the Congress party’s prowess to take the issue up with the BJP, politically, Sitharaman said;

What gives them the right to pitch CBI against IB? It is P Chidambaram who worked as a tool to help the Congress party fight a fight which was not upto them politically.

Handwriting Expert

The channel also showed the two signatures by P Chidambaram to a handwriting expert who claims that the two seemingly different signatures are of the same person.

Screenshot of P Chidambaram’s signature on one of the affidavits. (Photo Courtesy: Times Now Screenshot)

Due to the gap of time, Chidambaram’s signature has changed. There is no forgery. The size and proportion of the letters is the same. The writing is that if a very matured person. All signatures belong to the same person. 

Professor VC Mishra, Forensic Handwriting Expert