MUMBAI/PUNE: The 100-page Mumbai terror attacks panel report which was handed over to state Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on Wednesday, came under severe criticism from intelligence and security experts as also from Vinita Kamte, the widow of slain Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Kamte.
The two-member committee headed by former state Chief Secretary Ram Pradhan in its report complimented the Mumbai police and state government and gave them a clean chit over their alleged mishandling of the terror attack and laid the blame for the failure on the federal intelligence agencies.
"It's a goody-goody report, and eyewash and a joke," is how the experts described the findings of the panel report. Former additional secretary in the Cabinet secretariat and a former Research and Analysis Wing official B. Raman, said that it was difficult to agree with the panel's contention that there was absolutely no negligence on part of the Mumbai police. Speaking to a local English daily, Raman said, "The attacks lasted three days. Three were so many obvious failures on part of the police, and instead of examining them critically the committee decided to act as a whitewash."
Another former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, Yogesh Pratap Singh, said that the panel has not even considered that several police officers died because they had been supplied substandard bulletproof jackets. "The panel has no legal basis at all as it wasn't appointed under the Commission of Inquiries Act," he added.
Former Mumbai Police Commissioner M.N. Singh said that the report falls short of public expectation which was so angry after the attacks.
Meanwhile, Vinita Kamte, a resident of Pune and a lawyer, said that she would replay her husband's phone calls in bid to prove police "lapses." She said that she would establish the truth that the lives of her husband and other police officers could have been saved, but for the alleged lapses on the part of some senior police officials on Nov. 26, 2009.
Vinita said that she would listen to the calls made by her husband on the first night of the attacks, for which she had filed an Right to Information (RTI) application for access. Besides, she plans to take the legal path of action. She alleged that there were serious lapses and discrepancies on the part of the senior police officers.
"All the police officers who had not performed their duties have been given a clean chit, and hence would continue to hold on to their jobs. The government is supporting their cowardice police while my husband, who had no business to be on the spot in the first place, gave his life for the nation," she added.
The widow also alleged that certain portions of the phone call records of the police control room on Nov. 26 were deleted. "There is at lest 10 minutes of conversation that has been deleted. I have sought records of my husband's calls through RTI."
"My first RTI application to scrutinize the phone records of my husband was rejected by the State Information Commission, while my subsequent appeal was accepted and she was notified that she could come and listen to the calls," she stated.
