JOIN US Amid reports that Dawood Ibrahim, the mastermind of the March 12, 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai, wanted to surrender 22 years ago, NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday said the underworld don had put up a condition that he should not be jailed.
Pawar was then the Maharashtra chief minister, heading a Congress government, and the conditional offer came from veteran lawyer Ram Jethmalani, who later became the Union Law Minister in the government led by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
“It is true that Ram Jethmalani had given a proposal about Dawood’s willingness to return. But there was a condition that Dawood should not be kept in jail. Rather he be allowed to remain in a house. This was not acceptable. We said he had to face the law,” Pawar said.
Meanwhile, Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikkam said that conditional surrender was not allowed. “If he (Dawood Ibrahim) wanted to surrender, he should have come before the police,” he said.
As many as 257 people were killed and 713 injured while properties worth Rs 27 crore suffered damages in the 1993 terror incident.