Author: Deepak Lokhande
Publication: Mid-Day
Date: August 9, 2003
URL: http://web.mid-day.com/news/city/2003/august/60716.htm
Mumbai police and the state government
botched up the case of the conspiracy to kill Deputy Prime Minister L K
Advani, in which seven gangsters were recently acquitted, the Intelligence
Bureau (IB) said.
IB officials, who were working on
the case even before Mumbai police stepped in, say the state and the city
police allowed for a loophole by not applying the Maharashtra Control of
Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) to the accused.
"The conversation between the accused
and Chhota Shakeel was taped. If MCOCA had been applied, the tape could
have been used as evidence, and an acquittal would have been difficult,"
said sources in the IB.
"Naidu, the STD booth owner who
heard the accused talking to Chhota Shakeel and one of the main prosecution
witnesses, turned hostile during the trial, which resulted in the acquittal.
Under MCOCA, Naidu's turning hostile wouldn't have made a difference."
The seven accused were arrested
following a tip-off from the IB, who had detailed information on them.
"Dalvi, one of the conspirators, tipped off the IB about the plan. The
accused were picked up after a nationwide hunt. The informer was also a
witness, but the trial judge refused to accept his statement saying he
was a criminal himself. The prosecution should have made a strong plea
to the court to accept his statement," said sources.
BJP general secretary Pramod Mahajan
accused the state and police of being insensitive to the case.
"The home department appointed senior
lawyer Shrikant Bhat to represent the case but did not decide on his pay
despite several reminders from Bhat, who refused to appear in court till
he was given an appointment letter. When the letter was finally issued,
the hearings were almost over. In the meantime, the state paid another
counsel twice the amount Bhat had asked for," Mahajan said. Mahajan sought
a CBI inquiry into the acquittal.
Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal
said his government was going to file an appeal against the trial court's
judgement and that there was no need to politicise the issue.
"We are equally concerned about
Advaniji. I don't see why Mahajan should go over the top," he said. Senior
home department officials too expressed surprise at Mahajan's talk and
the IB's damning of the home department. "If they didn't trust us, why
did they work with us? If they thought the investigation was shoddy or
the prosecution was weak, they should have raised the alert then," sources
in the home ministry said.