If Kasab murdered Karkare, why was he not convicted for his murder, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi chief asks then public prosecutor and BJP candidate Ujjwal Nikam
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI – Prominent Dalit leader and chief of Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), Prakash Ambedkar, has raised serious questions over the killing of Mumbai’s former Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare in the 2008 terror attacks in the country’s financial capital.
He pointed out that Mumbai terror attack mastermind Ajmal Kasab was not convicted for the murder of Karkare and IPS officer Vijay Salaskar.
Ambedkar, a grandson of Bhimrao Ambedkar, the architect of India’s Constitution, posed the questions to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from Mumbai North Central Lok Sabha constituency, Ujjawal Nikam.
Nikam was the public persecutor in the Ajmal Kasab case.
“Ujjwal Nikam, who killed Hemant Karkare and Vijay Salaskar? If Kasab and Ismail (Khan) had opened fire and killed Karkare and Salaskar, then why was Kasab not tried and convicted for their murder? You were the Special Public Prosecutor, how did you allow this to happen,” he asked.
Ambekar also insinuated that there was an attack from within during the assault on Taj Hotel during the whole terror operation.
“Was there really an attack planned within an attack? If yes, how did it happen under the nose of the Congress-led state and central governments,” he questioned.
Ambedkar also posted a screenshot of the judgment which convicted Kasab of conspiring with other accused and waging war on the government of India. The screenshot also shows that Kasab was found guilty of murdering seven persons. Karkare and Salaskar are not among those killed for which Kasab was convicted.
The issue came up recently when Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar said that Karkare was shot on the instructions of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
“During 26/11, Hemant Karkare was not shot by Kasab. A police officer shot him on the instructions of RSS. Public Prosecutor Adv. Ujjwal Nikam knew this yet chose to hide this fact,” Wadettiwar said.
Later, Wadettiwar clarified that he was just quoting from retired police officer S.M. Mushrif’s book ‘Who Killed Karkare?’
“There is no morality in today’s politics. People who are in politics for power will sell the country off,” the Congress leader said.
Shashi Tharoor, senior Congress leader, also backed Wadettiwar’s statement saying the nation has the right to know what happened.
“The matter is extremely serious. Our concern is that when the LoP points to something that is an allegation that has been in the public domain for some time and which featured in a book by the former IG of police, S.M. Mushrif, who said that the bullets found in Karkare’s body could not have been fired by Ajmal Kasab and that it could have been fired by a police revolver,” Tharoor said.
In April 2019, BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur called Karkare “anti-national” claiming that he was killed because she cursed him.
“I had told him you will be finished, and he was killed by terrorists in less than two months,” bragged Sadhvi Pragya at a press conference.
“He was anti-national. He was dharam virudh (anti-religion). You won’t believe it, but I said, ‘tera sarvanash hoga’. Just after ‘sawa’ month, terrorists killed him,” said Sadhvi Pragya.
