MUMBAI: While homage was being paid to those killed in the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, the wife of slain police commissioner Ashok Kamte caused jitters in the police and Maharashtra government circles with her new book.
At a book release function, Vinita Kamte made a stunning revelation alleging that it was Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria who had "feigned ignorance" of the location of her husband and slain ATS chief Hemant Karkare and also tried to hide crucial details of the events that led to her husband's death.
In the book titled 'To The Last Bullet' authored by herself and senior journalist Vinita Deshmukh, editor of Intelligent Pune, Kamte's wife has narrated her ordeal as to how she was denied crucial details like the call logs that would highlight the circumstances of the events which led to her husband's death. Kamte was additional commissioner of police in-charge of east region.
She has mentioned the sequence of events on how she was denied documents by Maria and how she had to evoke the Right to Information Act (RTI) for every single document including her husband's post-mortem report, which is necessary for insurance claims.
Vinita said that when she had called her husband after learning about the incident, he had told her that he was asked to go to the Taj Hotel by the then Commissioner of Police Hasaan Gafoor. But he was killed near Cama Hospital.
Vinita said that while inspecting the call logs, in a conversation between Maria and Gafoor, the former had informed the latter about Ashok's position at Cama Hospital. "How did Ashok land up at Cama Hospital when he was directed to go to Taj Hotel?" is one of the answers that Vinita is still trying to find out.
She has mentioned that she was denied the call logs by Maria seeking cover under sec 8(h) of RTI Act that states that "information that may impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders" should not be revealed.
"Why did Maria feign ignorance to the Commissioner of Police on Karkare's location at 12.56 a.m., when call logs clearly indicated that the ATS chief was at Cama rear gate at 11.24 p.m. and the fact that Ashok and Karkare were injured? Why did such a senior officer like Maria deny that he had sent Ashok to the Cama Hospital, despite the wireless logs showing this," she has asked.
"It is a year to the incident, but several questions still come to mind as to why was I denied the details of the call log. But I have got answers to none. What transpired during the entire Cama Hospital operation that three top officials were killed by the two terrorists is still a mystery," Vinita said at the book release on Tuesday night.
