IB director complains after CBI summons officer,NSA briefs PM

Ishrat Jahan case: Protest after IB's Rajendra Kumar is called for questioning.

The brewing crisis between the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the CBI over the latters decision to summon senior IPS officer and IB Special Director Rajendra Kumar as an accused in the Ishrat Jahan case has now reached the Prime Minister.

Following a strong protest lodged by IB chief Asif Ibrahim,National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon has brought the matter to the notice of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,apprising him about the IBs concern that action against a senior officer could send a wrong signal and also set a bad precedent. Ibrahim is also learnt to have taken up the matter with Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde,Home Secretary R K Singh and CBI Director Ranjit Sinha.

However,sources said the CBI has told the government that it has adequate material to prove Kumars role in the conspiracy leading to the alleged fake encounter in which Ishrat and three others were killed. CBI sources claimed the agency also has proof of what they said was Kumars proximity to the Narendra Modi government.

The CBI is also mulling the arrest of Kumar. As reported by The Indian Express,the CBI has summoned Kumar for questioning on Friday. Kumar was summoned by the CBI last month also.

Kumar,a 1979-batch IPS officer,was posted as IB Joint Director in Gujarat when the IB sent an input to the state government about an alleged Lashkar-e-Toiba plot to kill Modi. Ishrat and three others were killed by the Ahmedabad Police Crime Branch in an alleged fake encounter on June 15,2004. In its defence,the state police cited the IB input.

Kumar is under investigation for his role in sending the IB input. He is also under the CBI scanner in the Sadiq Jamal encounter case.