Thaindian News

New Delhi, May 19 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has owned up its mistake of including a man who is in a Mumbai jail in the the list of India’s 50 Most Wanted fugitives allegedly hiding in Pakistan, an official said Thursday. An inspector has been suspended and two senior officers transferred for the lapse.

“They (the CBI) have admitted the mistake for erroneously including the name of Feroze Abdul Rashid Khan in the list given to Pakistan,” home ministry spokesperson Onkar Kedia told IANS.

Kedia said that the CBI had named 40 people and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had included 10 suspected terrorists in the Most Wanted list that was given to Pakistan during the home secretary level talks in March.

The CBI, the official said, “has written to the home ministry saying that it had forgotten to remove the name from the list although the accused was in their custody”.

He said the NIA has checked with its list and the agency stands by the names forwarded to the home ministry.

The CBI, he added, is now rechecking the names of 40 people it had given after the second goof-up in the list.

Meanwhile, a CBI statement said: “The CBI conducted a preliminary enquiry into the lapse. A inspector was suspended and a superintendent and deputy superintendent of police transferred.”

Elaborating on the lapse, CBI spokesperson Dharini Mishra said: “After the first lapse was discovered on May 17, the CBI ordered an enquiry and a review was undertaken. During that time, it was reveled that there is a person named Feroze Abdul Rashid Khan in the list of the most-wanted fugitive handed over the Pakistan. The information regarding the arrest of Khan was intimidated to the Interpol wing of CBI in February 2010.”

“The the lapse has occurred on the part of the officials in cancelling the name from the list. The CBI has taken action against them,” said Mishra adding that the director of CBI now is undertaking a complete review of the functioning of CBI’s Interpol wing.

Feroze Khan, listed in the dossier as Most Wanted criminal No.24, was Thursday found to be in Mumbai’s fortified Arthur Road Central Jail and facing trial in the March 12, 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, official sources said.

The embarrassing revelation come two days after Wazhul Qamar Khan, accused number 42, and alleged to be in Pakistan, was found working and living with his family in Thane.

Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram had expressed regrets and Wazhul’s name was struck off the list.