Riyaz Deshmukh, former Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) and deputy to Mumbai's Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare, has jumped into the poll fray against Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur.
"BJP has fielded Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, an accused in Malegaon blast case, against Digvijaya Singh in Bhopal. She has spoken against Hemant Karkare. She called him a traitor. It hurt me. Thereafter, I decided to contest the election as an independent against her from Bhopal," Deshmukh told ANI.
Hemant Karkare, a senior IPS officer, was killed in action during the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. In 2009, he was posthumously given the Ashoka Chakra, India's highest peacetime gallantry decoration.
Karkare had probed multiple terror blasts in Maharashtra's Malegaon in September 2006 in which six people were killed and over 100 others were injured.
Pragya Thakur, the key accused in the blast and currently out on the bail, recently said that Karkare died because she had cursed him. Later, she withdrew her statement, when she faced criticism from all quarters.
Deshmukh, who retired from the Police Department in 2016, said that no one should be allowed to humiliate the country's martyrs, as they have sacrificed their lives while serving the nation.
Sharing his experience of working with Karkare, Deshmukh said: "I was like my mentor. I worked under him for many years and learnt many things from him."
