The investigation conducted under Kiren Rijiju’s leadership will be a rushed attempt to give clean chit to Eknath Khadse alleges Preeti Sharma Menon.
Aam Aadmi Party has alleged that the Modi government’s decision to order a probe on Dawood Ibrahim calls logs case under supervision of Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju is an eyewash to mislead people. AAP leader Preeti Sharma Menon questioned the manner in which the Mumbai Police had hastily given clean chit to Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse in this case. She added that the government is not serious about conducting a fair probe and has been attempting to conceal the truth.
“The topmost agencies should have arrested all the five persons who have allegedly received calls from the landline number of Dawood Ibrahim’s home phone, registered in the name of his wife Mehjabeen Shaikh,” said Preeti.
“The ethical hacker Manish Bhangale had written to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the first instance itself and offered his help for conducting inquiry. Through this act Bhangale was doing a service to the nation by gleaning out information related to the most wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim and was unmindful of his own safety. The PM however, chose to ignore this issue and the BJP governments of Maharashtra and Gujarat too failed to thoroughly investigate this matter,” she added.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was forced to order an investigation by Mumbai Police only after the Aam Aadmi Party revealed that Khadse’s number figured in the call logs. Khadse had repeatedly lied to national media about the status of his phone and has given multiple versions – from it being switched off, to being not in use, to being hacked or cloned. Despite this the Mumbai Police had given a clean chit to Khadse within few hours without questioning him.
The ethical hacker had then produced more clinching evidence – details of seven calls, their exact time, duration and billing. Maharashtra Government was forced to retract its earlier clean chit and said that a fresh probe will be conducted through ATS. Incidentally ATS is now headed by the same IPS officer Atulchandra Kulkarni who gave a clean chit to Khadse in his former role as Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime).
“Now the central government has ordered for new probe in this case under Kiren Rijiju’s leadership. However nobody has been arrested yet and no interrogation has been carried out in a matter which is concerned with national security! This probe too will be a rushed attempt to give a clean chit to Khadse. If an ordinary person was alleged to have been in touch with Dawood Ibrahim, the agencies would immediately arrest him/her, seize all phones and computers, and investigate his/her family and associates too. But no such investigation is being conducted by any arm of the Modi Government,” added Preeti.
Kiren Rijiju said, “The allegations were of serious nature and a thorough probe will be conducted in this case. The centre was in touch with the Maharashtra government to ensure a detailed investigation. It would be premature to make any further comments until the conclusion of investigations”
