She referred to an article written by former Mumbai Police Commissioner Julio Ribeiro in an English daily in Punjab, in which he mentioned that ex-Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare had told him he was facing “political pressure” from a Delhi-based leader in the Malegaon blast case
Former IPS officer Meeran Borwankar. File pic
Former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Meeran Borwankar has said that political interference was among the reasons why justice could not be delivered in the Malegaon and 7/11 train blast cases, as well as in the murder of rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar, PTI reported.
Speaking at the 12th death anniversary of Dr Dabholkar in Pune on Wednesday, Borwankar revealed that she had received a threatening email questioning her decision to attend the event.
“I decided to speak on the same subject I had recently written about in an article in a Marathi daily about political interference in policing,” she said.
She referred to an article written by former Mumbai Police Commissioner Julio Ribeiro in an English daily in Punjab, in which he mentioned that ex-Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare had told him he was facing “political pressure” from a Delhi-based leader in the Malegaon blast case, PTI reported.
According to Borwankar, Ribeiro wrote that this conversation with Karkare took place just a day or two before the ATS chief was killed during the 26/11 Mumbai attacks in 2008.
“Similarly, Rohini Salian, with whom I worked closely and who was a sincere, committed and knowledgeable prosecutor, was set aside in the Malegaon blasts case after the NIA took over. She had gone on record to say that there was pressure on her to go soft. After the Malegaon blasts verdict came, she sought to know where the evidence had gone,” Borwankar said.
She also referred to the observations made by a Pune court during the Dabholkar murder trial, reported PTI.
“Sentencing two accused to life imprisonment and acquitting three others, the judge observed that if three accused were acquitted, who was the main conspirator and who hatched the plot to kill Dr Dabholkar. Neither the CBI nor the police could reach the mastermind. Was it failure, or deliberate, or was there any influence by a powerful person,” she asked.
Borwankar added that if politicians interfere in sensitive cases such as the Dabholkar murder and Malegaon blasts, and victims are denied justice, “then what could be worse than that?”
“It is true that we could not give justice to the 190 victims of the 7/11 train bombings, the Malegaon victims, or trace the real perpetrators in the Dabholkar murder. Along with various other factors, political interference is one of the key reasons,” she said, adding, “...while working in the police department in different roles, how pressure affects the police's efficiency and how, instead of reaching the truth, we lose our path.”
Dr Dabholkar was shot dead by two assailants while on his morning walk on the Omkareshwar bridge in Pune on August 20, 2013.
Nearly 17 years after the Malegaon blasts, which claimed six lives, a special court in Mumbai on July 31 acquitted all the seven accused, including former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Parliament (MP) Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Purohit, citing “no reliable and cogent evidence” against them.
Similarly, on July 21, the Bombay High Court acquitted all the 12 accused in the 7/11 Mumbai train bombings of 2006, which had claimed over 180 lives, stating that the prosecution had “utterly failed” to prove the charges and that it was “hard to believe the accused committed the crime.”
(With PTI inputs)
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