The panel of B K Prasad, Additional Secretary in the Home Ministry, found the copy of a letter written by the then Home Secretary G K Pillai to the then Attorney General late G E Vahanvati from the hard disk of a computer of the Home Ministry, official sources said.
The clue about the letter was received by the inquiry committee after examination of three former Joint Secretaries handling the sensitive Internal Security Division in the Home Ministry.
A number of director, deputy secretary and under secretary-rank officers were also examined by the panel.
The inquiry panel has so far not been able to trace the other missing files related to alleged fake encounter killing of Ishrat Jahan.
Also Read
Following an uproar in Parliament, the ministry had asked Prasad to inquire into the circumstances in which the files related to the case of Ishrat, who was killed in an alleged fake encounter in Gujarat in 2004, went missing.
Two letters written by the then Home Secretary G K Pillai to the then Attorney General late G E Vahanvati and the copy of the draft affidavit have also so far remained untraceable.