AAP targets Khadse over phone calls from Dawood's Pak house

Aam Aadmi Party today demanded ouster of Maharashtra Minister Eknath Khadse,alleging calls were made from underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's residence in Karachi to his mobile phone, a charge the BJP leader rubbished as "baseless" saying the phone number was not in use for last one year.

However, AAP claimed the particular number was "active" till last month. "Eknath Khadse lied about his phone being out of service. His number 9423073667 received several calls from Dawood Ibrahim's wife Mehjabeen Shaikh's number 021-35871639 between September 4 2015 to April 5, 2016," AAP spokesperson Preeti Sharma Menon claimed in a press conference here.

She had yesterday met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and raised the issue of call records of four landline numbers registered at the underworld don's mansion in Karachi and of Khadse's name allegedly figuring on the list.

Addressing a press conference here, she claimed that the call details between September 5, 2015 and April 5, 2016 were accessed with the help of an "ethical hacker" Manish Bhangale.

She claimed the Chief Minister has asked the Mumbai Police to investigate the matter and that "the Police Commissioner's office has contacted Bhangale who has assured all support to police or any other central investigating agency".

"The call list of frequently internationally dialled numbers from Dawood Ibrahim's home phone also includes Eknath Khadse's number and it was a total lie that Khadse's number was not in service," she claimed.

The AAP leader claimed the last generated bill for Rs 683.22 of the particular phone number was dated April 23 this year and was dispatched to Khadse's home address in Muktainagar tehsil in Jalgaon district of north Maharashtra.

The AAP leader said, "I wrote to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis demanding a fair investigation as this is a very serious charge concerning national security".

Khadse, the seniormost member in the Fadnavis cabinet, has maintained that his number, 9423073667, was not in service since last one year. "During this period, no international call was made from or received on this phone," he said.

Meanwhile, Bhangale said he first went to Dubai and got Dawood's wife Mehjabeen's number, hacked it and placed a call details request on her behalf to Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL).

"I received a duplicate bill by hacking an email wherein PTCL wrote to Mehjabeen Shaikh and gave her list of 10 international numbers that were frequently called from her number," Bhangale said.

He claimed that "four out of ten frequently dialled numbers belonged to Indian politicians who hold command (over) central politics".

Reacting to Bhangale's contention, Menon said, "We believe that this is a very serious charge and the Maharashtra government must either authenticate or refute Manish Bhangale's claim and share the findings with the people".

Meanwhile, Khadse said, "The telecom service provider has sent a letter clarifying the facts. There is a possibility that the number was cloned." "I have asked the CM and Jalgaon SP to probe if any person is using this number," he said.