JOIN USMy husband didn't get help on time, says Kavita
Slain Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare’s wife Kavita on Wednesday asked why her husband and two other senior officials, who were killed during the Mumbai terror attacks, were not given reinforcements on time.
She was indirectly pointing fingers at the Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria, who was manning the main control room on the orders of the then police commissioner Hassan Gafoor and other top officiers.
Rumours have been doing rounds ever since the killings of the three officials that they did not get the backup when it was required, although there is no conclusive proof. The families of the slain officers as well as politicians like A R Antulay had demanded probe into the killing of the three officers, giving rise to different theories and speculations.
Karkare, along with Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Kamte and Inspector Vijay Salaskar were killed by two Pakistani terrorists — the captured Ajmal Kasab and his accomlice, who was later gunned down at Girgaum Chowpatti — near Cama Hospital in the dark lane opposite Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) during the Mumbai siege.
Speaking to reporters, Kavita said: “I just didn’t know anything in the initial six months. Politicians, media persons and other people were coming to my place, but I did’nt know what exactly was going around. Nobody has ever told me what happened that day. No senior officers have told me till date what had happened to my husband. I have just gathered information from media persons, or magazines and newspapers. Till date I don’t know the exact facts.”
She added: “But when politicians started raising questions, saying that he (Karkare) had acted in a very hasty manner and had gone for the operation blindly, we began getting information. Then, we came to know that Kamte, Karkare and Salaskar were planning a strategy in Cama hospital for 40 minutes. They had asked for help, but they couldn’t get help in those 40 minutes. It’s still a mystery as to why they couldn’t get help in 40 minutes.”
Kavita claimed that she was told by some police officials it would not be possible for her to get to know what exactly had happened to her husband during the attacks. She alleged that Hemant Karkare was left injured and unattended for over 40 minutes and was not taken to the hospital on time.
“My question is that when these people were there in Cama Lane for 40 minutes, why were they not given any help? And, when there bodies were lying, why the bodies of those people were not picked for about 40 minutes,” Kavita asked.
“Today, they are spending millions of rupees to preserve the bodies of the nine militants who launched the attack, just because at the international level we have to show that we are showing humanity. But the bodies of martyrs were lying there,” she added.
Earlier last week, Kavita also alleged that her husband’s bullet-proof jacket had gone missing. She said when his body was found, the jacket was missing, and the Right to Information (RTI) application had not yielded any information on its whereabouts.