PUNE: In a new twist into the Mumbai terror attacks issue, Vinita Kamte, widow of slain Additional Commissioner of Police, Ashok Kamte, alleged that the police have tried to cloud facts and take away from her husband’s heroism.
The Pune-based Vinita, in an interview with “Pune Mirror” published yesterday, said that she conducted her own probe to prove that her husband fired and injured the lone surviving terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Qasab and that the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare and senior police Inspector Vijay Salaskar, who were also killed along with her husband, did not act on an impulse during the November terror attack.
“What hurt me most was the attempt to create doubts over the contribution of her husband and the two other police officers Karkare and Salaskar.”
Coming strongly against the Mumbai police, Vinita said “The police control room knew Qasab and Ismail Khan were in Rang Bhavan area, where the encounter took place for over 10 minutes, but did not inform Karkare, Kamte or Salaskar. One police officer, who knew Salaskar was in Rang Bhavan area, had seen the two terrorists going in that direction. But he did not inform Salaskar. And despite the police control room knowing about the encounter, nobody reached the spot for over 40 minutes after the firing. Salaskar was alive for quite some time after the shootout and his life could have been saved.”
Vinita brushed aside the doubts that two bullets that hit Qasab were not fired by her husband, and how three senior officers could get into one car in pursuit of terrorists; the trio did not return fire after being ambushed near Rang Bhavan.
Giving a clean chit to federal Minister for Minority Affairs, Abdul Rahman Antulay, over raising some questions on the encounter theory, Vinita said “I don’t blame Antulay for asking such questions because an impression was being created that the trio acted impulsively.”
