In a big development which is likely to give a major boost to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s bid for prime minister’s post, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday gave a clean chit to his close aide Amit Shah in connection with the 2004 fake encounter of Ishrat Jahan and others.

According to reports, the central investigative agency made this submission in its report submitted to the special CBI court in which stated there was no evidence found against the Modi aide.

Shah was the Home Minister of Gujarat in 2004 when the encounter took place and was quizzed several times by the CBI after jailed IPS officer DG Vanzara claimed that the state govt was influencing the police.

Shah was questioned after Vanzara claimed in his resignation letter that Gujarat government was “inspiring, guiding and monitoring” every police action from “very close quarters”.

Ishrat Jahan, who hailed from Mumbra near Mumbai, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Zeeshan Johar and Amjad Ali Rana were killed by the Gujarat police in an encounter on June 15, 2004 on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.

Police had then claimed the four were terrorists on a mission to kill Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. However, according to the CBI’s chargesheet filed in July, the encounter, a joint operation by Gujarat Police and Intelligence Bureau, was stage-managed.

Seven Gujarat policemen have been named as accused and charged with murder and criminal conspiracy, among others.

Suspected ISI agent Mohammed Zahir Hussain was part of a larger ISI mission to target critical national assets and some foreign establishments besides being convicted of offences related to human trafficking and imprisoned in Singapore, Thailand and in his own country Sri Lanka, highly placed police sources said.

Mohammed Zahir Hussain told ‘Q’ Branch Police; handling cases related to national security, that he had spent close to four years in prison in Singapore, one year each in Thailand and Sri Lanka, sources said.

It has also emerged now that the ISI handlers in Colombo decided to “use his services,” based on his “solid field work” in human trafficking.

“ISI handlers wanted to use Hussain’s expertise in illegally ferrying people. They wanted to minimise the chances of getting detected by using his services,” an official said.

It is clear that he was part of a larger ISI mission to target “critical national assets besides certain foreign establishments,” he added.

Hussain had also told investigators that he had “absolutely no role” in the May 1 twin bomb blasts on the Kaziranga Express at Chennai Central Railway Station. He claimed that he was a textile trader who had been “importing lungis” from Tamil Nadu to his country.

Sources said he had confessed to having gathered important details related to vital installations. The information includes topography of American and Israeli consulates in Chennai and Bangalore respectively besides naval establishments in Visakhapatnam and Kochi.

He had also admitted to having assisted in procuring fake passports for two persons to visit India, also suspected to be ISI agents. He told the investigators that he had “not done anything so far “except “collecting details and arranging” fake passports, sources said.

The 37-year-old Hussain was arrested on April 29 from an undisclosed location here following intelligence inputs. On May 5, a court here granted 3-day custody to Q Branch for interrogating him.

Police also seized some materials and counterfeit currency notes from him when he was arrested.

As India steps up its pressure on Switzerland to get details of suspected tax evaders having bank accounts in the European nation, a discreet probe is underway of each stock market dealing of over 100 entities linked to these cases to detect possible re-routing of black money.

The entities under watch include individuals whose names figure in a list of over 700 Swiss bank account holders, as also the bankers and associates related to certain banks whose Switzerland-based branches are under scanner.

Besides, 10-15 listed Indian companies including a few blue-chip names directly or indirectly linked to these banks and their Indian customers are also under a close tab for any suspected market manipulations, senior officials said.

It is suspected that some of these entities may have brought back their illicit wealth through the stock market route, by using complex fund structures of certain overseas funds, including those floated by select European banking giants.

The official said that a few large global banks are under scanner, although it is also possible that the banks themselves might be unaware of the illicit activities being carried out by their executives for the benefit of their clients.

He further said that these bankers are suspected to have first convinced their clients to move their funds to non-Swiss locations like Singapore, Dubai and London before eventual transmission to India, to avoid the ever-growing glare or regulatory and intelligence agencies on funds and entities linked to Switzerland.

While jurisdictions like Mauritius and Cyprus earlier used to be preferred as such intermediary locations, these places have themselves come under scanner of Indian agencies and therefore bankers are opting for some new routes.

Refusing to disclose the name of these individuals, banks or the listed companies under scanner, a senior official said these include some really big names and those figuring in the lists of richest persons and biggest companies, but that disclosure of further details at this moment may jeopardise the probes that are still in the initial stages.

These probes come at a time when India has strongly objected to Switzerland’s denial of information about account details of certain Indians at HSBC’s Swiss bank branches, in whose cases “incriminating evidence of tax evasion” have been found here.

In his third letter to Switzerland in this regard, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said that the interpretation made by Switzerland that it cannot share information as per India’s request was not in accordance with international standards.

Adding to the controversy over Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s “neech rajneeti” barb against Narendra Modi, Minister of State, Human Resource Development, Shashi Tharoor, on Wednesday said the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate is exploiting the phrase.

“It is an opportunistic exploitation by Mr Modi of the phrase ‘neech rajneeti’, it had nothing to do with his caste,” said Tharoor.

The Congress leader further rejected the usage of “part time politician” tag for Priyanka Gandhi, saying the daughter of Congress president has worker very hard. However, “Mr (Arun) Jaitley is a part-time Lok Sabha aspirant,” added Tharoor, referring to the BJP’s leader first stint for Lok Sabha seat.

Hailing Congress, which “campaigns for an idea of India”, Tharoor said it looks like the BJP campaigns for an India without an idea.

Priyanka on Monday attacked Modi, saying he had insulted her “martyred” father Rajiv Gandhi, and that the Congress workers in Amethi would give a befitting reply to his “low-level politics”.

Her barb at Modi got a caste spin with the BJP prime ministerial candidate using it to play upon his ‘lower caste’ identity. The Congress later accused Modi of deliberately misinterpreting facts while BSP leader Mayawati attacked him for his “despicable politics” for electoral benefit.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, when asked to respond on the barb of his sister, said today that no one was low by caste, but it was the thinking, politics and actions which were low and despicable.

Seventeen persons were killed and twelve seriously injured when a bus fell 400 metres deep into a gorge near village Milla of Sirmaur district on Wednesday.

Seven persons died on the spot, two on way to hospital while eight persons succumbed to their injuries in hospital at Paonta Sahib, Sirmaur SP Sumedha said.

All the bodies have been recovered and ten out of seventeen victims identified.

The injured were rushed to nearby Shillai hospital and shifted to Sub Divisional hospital, Paonta Sahib, after administering first aid.

The condition of five injured persons was stated to be critical and they are being referred to PGI, Chandigarh.

The bus was on its way from Milla to Paonta Sahib when the tragedy struck.

The deceased were identified as Dimple (12), Attar Singh (38), Nisha (35), Vir Singh (37), Santosh (17), Chander Kala (17), Tapender (14) Jayanti Devi (40), Khajan Singh and Santo (45) while seven dead are yet to be identified.

Seventeen persons have been admitted to hospital at Poanta while four were admitted at Shillai.

A magisterial inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the cause of the accident.

Most of the accident victims hail from Milla and Magnal village while one of the deceased was from village Phadog.

“Distressed” by Narendra Modi’s mother travelling in an auto rickshaw and living in a small room, a Congress leader today wrote to BJP’s PM candidate volunteering to look after her as Mr. Modi had not provided her a “comfortable” life despite his “wealth” and success.

“I fail to understand how you could not provide a comfortable life for your mother who spent her entire life trying to ensure a brighter future for you.”

“Your mother is like my mother. I have immense respect for her. I may not be as resourceful as you are, but I would request you to allow me to provide her all the necessary comforts of life according to my capacity,” Mr. Alvi said in a letter to Mr. Modi.

Mr. Alvi lamented that Mr. Modi has been telling in his campaign all along that his mother raised him single-handedly in the most difficult conditions. “You mentioned how she had to work in the neighbouring households to ensure that she could look after you properly.”

“With her dedication and hard work, she brought you up in a way that you could not only rise to become the Chief Minister of a state like Gujarat, but also went on to become the PM candidate of your party”, he told Mr. Modi.

At the same time, he told Mr. Modi that he was “deeply pained” when he came to know that the mother of the Gujarat Chief Minister still lives in an 8×8 room.

“I was also distressed when I saw that she travelled in an auto rickshaw to cast her vote recently,” he said noting that in Indian culture, when the son does well in life, the first beneficiaries of the success are usually the parents.

“Modiji, recently when you filed your nomination, you disclosed assets worth more than Rs. 1.25 crore. I am baffled how even as an ordinary person who has so much wealth, you fail to provide necessary comforts to your mother.

Bang in the middle of election season, this will be a welcome headline for Amit Shah, chief aide of Narendra Modi, the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) stated in court that it has no evidence against Mr Shah in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case. Ishrat, a 19-year-old Mumbai student, was killed along with three men in the outskirts of Ahmedabad by Gujarat policemen who claimed they had been told by the Intelligence Bureau that the four were terrorists who planned to assassinate Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat.

The CBI, which has questioned Mr. Shah twice while investigating the case, was responding to a petition in a Gujarat court filed by the father of Pranesh Pillai, one of the men killed with Ishrat. Mr. Pillai has sought that Amit Shah be named as an accused in the case.

He appealed after the CBI filed two chargesheets in the case, none of which names Mr. Shah, who was the Gujarat Home Minister at the time. The agency told the court today that it had laid all its evidence in the case before it.

Mr. Shah has been very visible in these national elections, as much for his controversial speeches, which earned him a warning and a temporary ban by the Election Commission, as for his much-vaunted political strategy in Uttar Pradesh, expected to win the BJP a big haul of seats in the crucial state, which sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha.

The BJP’s Muqtar Abbas Naqvi said, “The CBI clean chit in court to Amit Shah will be seen as Satyamev Jayate (Truth prevails). The Congress scripted a political conspiracy.”

The Congress’, Shashi Tharoor sought to play down the development, “This is the CBI’s professional judgement. It is not an exoneration by any court,” he said.

As many as 66 Tihar inmates in Delhi, who are on the verge of completing their sentences, were today hired by private companies during a recruitment drive at the jail premises.

Vedanta group and IDEIM India Pvt Ltd offered the highest number of placements while Taj Mahal group offered the highest package to Raju Parasnath, who has spent more than eight years in Tihar.

Parasnath, who earned the highest package, had completed Bachelor of Social work from IGNOU during his stay in jail. He secured a job at Tajmahal Group of Companies where he is going to be placed as Assistant Business Development Manager for a salary of Rs. 35,000 per month.

“I came here when I was 18-years-old. I was charged for murder. My sentence was reduced keeping in mind my good behaviour. I completed my graduation in Tihar and have now got a job. I hope I will do justice to myself and my employers,” he said.

Most of the inmates who have landed jobs are on the verge of being released and will now join after the completion of their sentences, officials said.

31 companies participated in the event. In all, 66 inmate students were selected to participate in this programme and the selection criteria was based on their good conduct.

They got jobs according to their skill and education; however, no women inmate participated in the placement drive.

Director General (Prisons) Vimla Mehra congratulated the candidates and also heard their complaints and grievances regarding the jail.

“I wish all of you a very successful life ahead and would like you to spread the message to your jail mates to maintain calm and keep good behaviour for their better reformation,” she said.