28 August,2013 09:52 AM IST | | Vinay Dalvi
A day after this paper reported that a constable of Unit III of Crime Branch Unit III exchanged some 80 calls with Kasim Bangali, main accused in Thursday's gang rape, the Crime Branch has shot down the claim.
Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Himanshu Roy denied that Constable Salim Mujawar had called up Bangali at any point before Thursday's crime.
Yesterday, MiD DAY had reported that Mujawar and Bangali were in constant touch over phone between July-end and the date of crime. We had quoted other sources from the Branch's Unit III as saying that Bangali was a police informer.
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But Roy yesterday dismissed the facts as âmisreporting'.
Bangali's mother, however, vouched that her accused son was a khabri. She claimed the constable often rode down on his bike to their shanty in Kalapani area of Saat Rasta, after which Bangali would accompany him to a nearby spot where they would talk for a while.
She recalled that the cop's bike was black in colour and sported police insignia.
"Every week, Mujawar used to come down to our hut, riding his black bike that had a sticker saying âPolice' in Marathi. He would take my son to a nearby lane and they'd talk for about 10-15 minutes. After that, my son would come back to the house. When I asked him what they spoke about, he wouldn't tell me, saying only, âAmmi, tumhe kya karna hai yeh sab se, par main police ki madad karta hoon, yeh dhyaan mein rakho'," said Chandbi, while talking to MiD DAY at her shanty where she lives with her seven-year-old daughter Nargis and 14-year-old son Ahmed.
Chandbi said she would approach her son's service provider to get his call details to prove her claim.
She even challenged the Crime Branch to make the call detail records public so the truth is out.
"If they are saying that the constable had not called my son Kasim Shaikh Mohammad Hanif Shaikh, I request them to make public the call details records of my son as well as Constable Saleem Mujawar of Unit III of Mumbai Crime Branch," said Chandbi Shaikh.
Meanwhile, the source who told MiD DAY about this claimed that the Crime Branch was in denial mode and should make the call details public.u00a0