Mumbai:
The mystery over what happened to the missing bulletproof jacket of slain Maharashtra Police's Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare, has just got deeper.
On Tuesday, Dinesh Gattar, a sweeper at the J J Hospital in Mumbai, had told a Mumbai court that he found Karkare's jacket the morning after the 26/11 attacks. Karkare's body was brought to this hospital for an autopsy.
Then police sources had told NDTV that Gattar had thrown away the jacket into a disposable bag and sent it off to the Deonar dumping ground. But on Friday, Gattar exclusively told NDTV that he hasn't done that. Instead he had found the jacket and put it aside even informing a hospital nurse about it.
"I did not dispose the jacket. I just put it aside. We segregate waste into black bag and red bags. When I was doing that I saw the jacket and placed it aside," Gattar said.
Gattar's statement comes just days after the Mumai police almost gave up on finding the jacket. Some even claimed that Gattar might have even sold the jacket for money.
"I have not sold it. The judge asked me and I told him this," Gattar clarified.
Hemant Karkare, the chief of Maharashtra's Anti Terror Squad, was killed on 26/11 outside Cama Hospital, along with assistant police commissioner Ashok Kamte and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar. Karkare's bulletproof jacket was never found. A public interest litigation has alleged that the jackets worn by Karkare and others were defective. A court is trying to determine if a sub-standard consignment was indeed, delivered to the police, either accidentally or deliberately.
The late ATS chief's wife, Kavita Karkare, who has been leading the campaign to trace the jacket says she has little hope of it ever being found. "I know they may never find the jacket but my struggle will go on so that no one else goes through what I have undergone," she said.
The Mumbai police claims it is still trying its best to find the jacket and has questioned over 80 staffers at the hospital. Claims that only the appearance of the jacket might help support.
On Tuesday, Dinesh Gattar, a sweeper at the J J Hospital in Mumbai, had told a Mumbai court that he found Karkare's jacket the morning after the 26/11 attacks. Karkare's body was brought to this hospital for an autopsy.
Then police sources had told NDTV that Gattar had thrown away the jacket into a disposable bag and sent it off to the Deonar dumping ground. But on Friday, Gattar exclusively told NDTV that he hasn't done that. Instead he had found the jacket and put it aside even informing a hospital nurse about it.
"I did not dispose the jacket. I just put it aside. We segregate waste into black bag and red bags. When I was doing that I saw the jacket and placed it aside," Gattar said.
Gattar's statement comes just days after the Mumai police almost gave up on finding the jacket. Some even claimed that Gattar might have even sold the jacket for money.
"I have not sold it. The judge asked me and I told him this," Gattar clarified.
Hemant Karkare, the chief of Maharashtra's Anti Terror Squad, was killed on 26/11 outside Cama Hospital, along with assistant police commissioner Ashok Kamte and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar. Karkare's bulletproof jacket was never found. A public interest litigation has alleged that the jackets worn by Karkare and others were defective. A court is trying to determine if a sub-standard consignment was indeed, delivered to the police, either accidentally or deliberately.
The late ATS chief's wife, Kavita Karkare, who has been leading the campaign to trace the jacket says she has little hope of it ever being found. "I know they may never find the jacket but my struggle will go on so that no one else goes through what I have undergone," she said.
The Mumbai police claims it is still trying its best to find the jacket and has questioned over 80 staffers at the hospital. Claims that only the appearance of the jacket might help support.
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