In what came as a relief to Maharashtra’s former beleaguered Minister and senior BJP leader Eknath Khadse, Anti—Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Monday told the Bombay High Court that it — in its preliminary investigations — found that he had no terrorist link nor had he exchanged telephone calls with Karachi-based underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.
In a submission made before a HC division Bench of Justices NH Patil and PD Naik, Maharashtra’s ATS advocate Niteen Pradhan said that there was no need for a CBI inquiry into the allegations made by the petitioner, since the matter was being investigated properly in the State.
“The ATS conducted preliminary inquiry. No terrorist angle has been found as alleged by the hacker. No calls were exchanged between Khadse and underworld don Dawood, as alleged by the hacker,” Pradhan told the two-member HC division Bench.
The HC division Bench is hearing a petition filed by Vadodara — based hacker Manish Bhangale, demanding a CBI probe into the much-discussed Khadse-Dawood call log case and seeking police protection on the ground that he faced a threat to his life.
Bhangale, who claims himself to be an “ethical hacker” had laid hands on the telephone records of Dawood Ibrahim by hacking into the Pakistani Telecom Company’s data base. He had claimed early this year that calls had been made from Dawood’s Karachi residence to then minister Khadse’s mobile number 9423073667.
Dismissing the petitioner’s allegation the State ATS was investigating the Khadse-Dawood call log case in a partial manner, Pradhan told the High Court, “The claims made by the petitioner that the information provided by him to the state machinery has been taken lightly is not correct. We are doing the needful and CBI probe is not required”.
While giving a prima facie clean chit to Khadse, the ATS lawyer told the HC division bench that though nothing incriminating information linking the former minister with Dawood had emerged, certain other revelations have come to the light in its investigations.
“Certain other serious things have come to the fore during the preliminary inquiry. But those will have to be probed by experts from the city police’s cyber crime cell. The ATS will submit its preliminary inquiry report to the cyber crime cell of the police’s crime branch which shall then investigate,” Pradhan told the court.
Disposing of Bhangale’s petition seeking a CBI inquiry into his allegations against Khadse, the HC Bench, “We cannot jump to CBI every time. We have to trust and have faith in the state machinery also. If at a later stage the petitioner feels probe is not being done properly, he can approach the High Court again”.
After recording Pradhan’s statement, the HC bench directed the petitioner to appear before the cyber crime branch of the Mumbai crime branch as and when he was asked to do and provide the information he had with him to the investigators.
On Bhangale’s plea for police protection, the HC bench said that the petitioner could make a representation before the Police Commissioner who would decide the matter on merit.
It may be recalled that quoting the called data provided to her by Bhangale, AAP leader Preeti Sharma Menon had gone to town on May 21 alleging that Khadse’s name figured in the frequently-dialled international call list of Dawood
“Khadse has admitted that the number 9423073667 belongs to him. Manish hacked a list of international numbers dialled from Dawood Ibrahim’s home phone and this is one of the numbers frequently dialled from Dawood’s home between September 5 2015 to April 5, 2016. Khadse’s claim that this number is not operational is not true,” the AAP leader had said.
On his part, Khadse has denied the allegations made by AAP leader Preeti Sharma Menon against him, saying that his mobile number 9423073667 was not in service for the last one year and that he had neither received or made any international calls on this number during this period.
The ATS’ prima facie clean chit in the Dawood call log case could not have come at a more opportune time than on Monday, when the monsoon session of the Maharashtra legislature began. “I have been saying this ( that there was no exchange of calls between him and Dawood) earlier. The truth has come out before the people,” Khadse said reacting to the clean chit by the ATS.