The controversy regarding slain anti-terrorism squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare’s missing bulletproof jacket refuses to die down. A news channel on Friday flashed a video footage of Dinesh Lalji Gataar, a sweeper from JJ Hospital, saying he was allegedly offered Rs50,000 by crime branch officers to give a statement that he had disposed of the jacket in the garbage bags.
However, speaking to
DNA, Gataar said, “The crime branch officers took me to their office and questioned me in the vehicle. They asked me if I had hid the jacket or sold it to someone for money.”
Gataar, a grade IV staffer, added: “They told me that they would pay the amount and get the jacket back, if I had sold it to someone and even give me Rs50,000 if I told them the truth.”
Gataar who had reported to duty at 6am on November 27, 2008 to the hospital said, “I told them that I had not disposed of the jacket. I had kept it in a plastic bag in ward no 4.”
According to the Gataar, he found the blood-stained jacket in a pile of medical waste in ward number 4. After segregating the garbage, he put the jacket in a separate black bag and put it in a corner of the ward. “I threw the garbage bags in the dumping yard and left the jacket in the ward as it was very heavy. I don’t know what happened to it after that as it was my day off on November 28,” he said.
