Maharashtra to probe into Gafoor's remarks

Mumbai: Maharashtra government has said it's 'concerned' about the remarks made by former Mumbai police commissioner Hasan Gafoor on the 26/11 operations and has decided to enquire into the episode.

In an interview to a magazine, the IPS officer had accused senior officers of the Mumbai Police for failing to respond to the events of 26/11. Gafoor claims he's been misquoted, but the officers named in the article are clearly angry.

The magazine continues to stand-by its article.

"A section of senior police officers refused to be on the ground and take on the terrorists. By doing so, they chose to ignore the need of the hour," Gafoor had reportedly said in the interview.

Naming some of the seniors, Hasan had said, "I told you there were a handful. For example, K L Prasad refused to come to the Trident and decided against hitting the roads. Devena Bharti, K Venkatesham and Parambhir Singh did not appear keen on responding to the situation as it kept dawning on us."

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Prasad was then the Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) while Bharti was the Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime). Venkatesham was the Additional Commissioner of Police (South Region) and Singh was the Additional Commissioner of Police (Anti-Terrorism Squad).

"Yes, there was dearth of eagerness on the part of a handful of senior officers to be on the ground during those days," said Gafoor, replying to a question if he noticed a bit of unwillingness among the senior officers.

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Now Director General of Police (Housing), Gafoor received a lot of flak from the Ram Pradhan Committee, which probed into how the security agencies responded to the deadly terror strikes that claimed more than 180 lives.

It had observed that command and control was not properly exercised during the handling of the attacks.