26/11: Answer SM Mushrif queries, high court tells govt

The high court on Wednesday sought a reply from the government on whether it has investigated the issues raised in former inspector general of police SM Mushrif’s book Who killed Karkare.

The division bench of justice BH Marlapalle and justice UD Salvi were hearing two petitions, one by former Bihar MLA Radhakant Yadav and another by Jyoti Bedekar, alleging that ATS chief Hemant Karkare’s death was orchestrated by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) personnel and members of “right-wing terrorist outfit” Abhinav Bharat. 

“We feel these are relevant. The theory of deep-rooted conspiracy, has it been investigated into,” asked Marlapalle. The judges said they read the book and they would “go into areas of concern and not conclusions he (Mushrif) has drawn”. Mushrif, who was summoned by the court, was present. The judges also remarked that Mushrif “as a citizen has a right to air his views”.

According to the judges, the book states that as early as November 19, 2010, secret information was passed to Prabhakar Alok, joint  director of IB, through the cabinet secretary and it contained 35 cell phone numbers under surveillance. However, this was not passed to the Maharashtra police or the Western Naval Command.

While 32 SIM cards were purchased from Kolkata, three were acquired from Maharashtra, and two SIM owner from Satara were interrogated by the police. “What happened to that,” asked Marlapalle. 

The book narrates IAS officer Bhushan Gagrani saying his staff had heard a terrorist at Cama talking in Marathi. “If there was a Marathi-speaking terrorist, surely he would not have come from Pakistan,” said Marlapalle. The book revealed that 16 CCTVs at CST were not working and questioned if it was deliberate or somebody tampered with them. “Has the police investigated these areas. Find out the exact situation and tell us,” Marlapalle told public prosecutor PA Pol. The reply has to be filed within a week.