Bringing back Dawood is a matter of doing, not talking: Jyoti

Union Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti today said the issue of bringing back underworld don Dawood Ibrahim to India was a "matter of doing and not talking."

To a query by reporters here that the Centre wants to bring back Dawood to India, but his aide Chhota Shakeel has reportedly said the government cannot nab him, Jyoti said much more has been spoken on the issue.

"This is a matter of doing, not talking," she further said. Notably, senior advocate Ram Jethmalani had recently stated that Dawood, a key accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, was willing to surrender to Indian authorities but Sharad Pawar, the then Chief Minister heading a Congress government in Maharashtra, had rejected the offer.

However, the NCP chief had yesterday said that Jethmalani had contacted him over Dawood's willingness to surrender, but conditions put forward for it were not acceptable to the state government.

The offer was made during Pawar's tenure as Chief Minister in 1990s. "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 had told reporters.