Tharoor bats for probe into 26/11 claims
PUNE: Congress member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor on Monday demanded a probe into party leader Vijay Wadettiwar’s claim about the killing of former Maharashtra Anti-terrorism Squad ( ATS) chief Hemant Karkare by a police officer and not a terrorist.
Wadettiwar had last week stirred a controversy by claiming that Karkare was “not killed by terrorists but by police official close to the RSS during the 26/11 attack in 2008.” He subsequently clarified that the claim was not his words but had been me n t i o n e d in the book authored by SM Mushrif, a former inspector general of police (IGP) in Maharashtra.
Tharoor was in Pune for the election campaign of Congress candidate Ravindar Dhangekar, who is contesting the Pune Lok Sabha constituency against BJP’S Murlidhar Mohol.
Te r m i n g the matter “extremely serious”, Tharoor said, “We are not saying that the allegation is definitely true, but should be investigated and it is not too late yet.”
“Our concern is that when the Leader of the Opposition (LOP) points to something which is an allegation that has been in the public domain for some time and which featured in a book by the former IG of police, Mr Mushrif, who said that the bullets f o u n d i n H e ma n t Karkare’s body could not h a v e b e e n f i r e d b y A j ma l Kasab and it could have been fired by a police revolver, it seems to me that this allegation should have been seriously investigated,” he said.
UJJWAL NIKAM PROPAGATED AN UNJUSTIFIED MYTH THAT KASAB WAS SERVED BIRYANI IN JAIL: THAROOR
T h e C o n g r e s s MP a l s o claimed that the then prosecutor and BJP candidate Ujjwal Nikam propagated an unjustified myth that the terrorist was served biryani in jail.
“In the court hearing of the Mumbai attack, Nikam was the public prosecutor and there is a serious charge made both in the Mushrif book and LOP statement to mislead the court. This is a serious charge and crime and therefore we feel it should be thoroughly inquired into,” he said.
Nikam on his part has already approached the Election Commission of India against Wadettiwar. Chief minister Eknath Shinde at a press conference on Monday criticised Wadettiwar and the Congress saying, “The Leader of Opposition speaks the language of party’s top neta Rahul Gandhi. It shows their ideology and thinking about the country.”