Will Devendra Fadnavis show that he has the courage to act against his own Minister asks Preeti Sharma Menon.
Even though Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse had rubbished all the allegations made by AAP against him for having received calls from the underworld as baseless but the party remained adamant on its stand and demanded his resignation. AAP leader Preeti Sharma Menon asked why did the Mumbai Police act in a haste to give clean chit to Khadse. She also questioned whether the Police carried out a thorough investigation for ascertaining the truth and was there any political pressure on them to shield Khadse? Preeti asked whether Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will take action against Khadse?
Preeti said that hacker’s claims are serious and should be investigated stands vindicated today. She said, “The ethical hacker Manish Bhangale has proved that calls were indeed made from Dawood Ibrahim’s wife’s phone to the phone of Eknath Khadse.”
The hacker once again hacked into Mehjabeen Shaikh’s mails, and through it got access to her Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL) account. He raised a query for calls made to Eknath Khadse’s number 0091 9423073667. He got a response that from January 2015 to April 2015 seven calls were made,” she added.
Khadse’s mobile number’s last seen date was mentioned as 11th October, 2015.
| DATE – TIME | NUMBER | DURATION | CHARGES |
| 18 – 01 – 1517:01:32 | 0091 9423073667 | 1:12 | 15.47 |
| 23 – 03 -15 13:06:15 | 0091 9423073667 | 5:43 | 46.41 |
| 23 – 03 -15 13:29:09 | 0091 9423073667 | 1:32 | 15.47 |
| 27 – 03 -15 19:45:11 | 0091 9423073667 | 0:42 | 7.73 |
| 28 – 03 -15 19:15:42 | 0091 9423073667 | 4:35 | 38.67 |
| 28 – 03 -15 22:10:01 | 0091 9423073667 | 1:47 | 15:47 |
| 28 – 03 -15 22:15:32 | 0091 9423073667 | 5:22 | 46.41 |
AAP questioned the manner in which Mumbai Police acted in haste to give clean chit to Khadse without conducting proper investigation. The party also wanted to know whether the Chief Minister has ordered for a probe into this matter or shielding Khadse?
“If there is any possibility that a citizen remains in touch with India’s most wanted terrorist, then he should be arrested and interrogated. Why does the same rule not applicable for Ekanth Khadse? It is condemnable that the BJP which pretends to be a nationalist party actually harbours, and makes leaders, out of people who are in touch with terrorists and who brazenly lie in public,” said Menon.
Manish Bhangale, the Ethical Hackers who released the call log said, “I did Google search for Ms. Shaikh’s numbers and address. Once I had the data, I used “social engineering” methods to procure the call logs and past bills for the phone numbers.”
“One of the four numbers (registered in Ms. Shaikh’s name) had a bill of Rs 5,500, which made me probe further. I asked them to provide me a list of the frequently called numbers from this phone,” he said.
“I searched on social networks and mobile applications like TrueCaller to find out about the Indian number being called frequently, which gave us the name ‘Eknath Khadse’, though we are not sure about its authenticity as it can also be fake name registered, I am waiting for the authorities to verify the same,” added Bhangale.
According to earlier report claim that the underworld don was in touch with some Indian politicians. Analysis of the numbers reveal that the don’s family was calling India frequently. The numbers reportedly belong to the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) and bills have been generated for these numbers till March 2016.
When Afternoon Voice spoke to activist and senior lawyer, Abha Singh, for her take on recent media reports that Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse was in touch with underworld fugitive Dawood Ibrahim via phone she said, “Since there is not enough substantial evidence to prove that there indeed was any contact from Khadse to Dawood (and vice-versa) the Mumbai Police have tackled the case well and have not bowed down to media pressure. Until there is no tangible or solid proof available that such a call indeed did happen the authorities must handle the case effectively and a wrong step on their part may put some cops in hot water,” said Abha.
She adds, “Of course though there are some influential people who are in touch with the underworld still the Mumbai Police must do a thorough investigation before jumping on to conclusions. Also the High Court should deploy a SIT (Special investigation Team) to investigate the claims of ethical hacker Mahesh Bhangale.”
“Also the onus lies on Mr. Atul Kulkarni (Joint Commissioner, Crime, Mumbai) to ensure that nothing goes wrong in this ongoing case else some policeman may stand the huge risk of losing their jobs,” Abha concludes.
RTI activist Anil Galgali said, “The media seem to have blown the case out of proportion. It remains to be seen as to how many more skeletons tumble out of the closet and if found guilty Khadse should resign.”
When queried upon as to whether Khadse did really contact Dawood, Galgali said, “The state government must launch a fully-fledged investigation into this entire incident. Khadse should step down until everything gets sorted out.”
Also when asked as to why were the police so eager to give Khadse the clean chit so fast, Galgali replied, “Pressure. If it were a common man in place of Khadse one can imagine how long it would have taken for him to get a clean chit. Just because Khadse is a minister he has had his life easy so far.”
