G.C. Murmu, Trusted Modi-Shah Aide and Now J&K's First LG, Has a Controversial Record

'The Centre has appointed Girish Chandra Murmu and R.K. Mathur as the new lieutenant governors of the two union territories, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, that are slated to come into existence on October 31... Murmu, who belongs to Mayurbhanj, Odisha, was seen as a trusted aide of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah during their stint in Gujarat. Murmu was the principal secretary in the chief minister’s office when Modi helmed the state government in Gujarat... In an article in 2018, Business Standard said that Murmu “played a key role in advising him (Modi) and Shah at critical junctures in their political careers... In 2013, he was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the alleged fake encounter case involving the killing of Ishrat Jahan and three others who were said to be accused of being involved in a plot to assassinate Modi,” the newspaper reported. An expose that year by Tehelka magazine showed an audio recording in which Murmu, along with senior law officer Kamal Trivedi and the then-junior home minister at the Centre, Praful Patel, allegedly discussed ways to cover up the alleged fake encounter. The audio recordings are now a part of the CBI’s chargesheet in the said case. Murmu also allegedly helped Amit Shah dodge the Snoopgate controversy, in which the current Union home minister was accused of putting a woman under state surveillance...'