Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh on Monday reasserted that he had spoken to Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare hours before the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai in 2008.
Singh had last week that Karkare told him before the Mumbai attacks that Hindu extremists were targeting him for the Malegaon blast probe.
“Karkare did say he was under threat. Those who are saying I did not talk to him would be proved wrong once I get the records,” he said after arriving in Guwahati on a two-day visit to take stock of his party’s poll preparedness.
Earlier this month, Singh replaced law minister M Veerappa Moily as in-charge of the Congress’ affairs in Assam. Assembly elections are scheduled in this northeastern state by May next year.
The Congress leader’s comment on Karkare followed reports based on call records from Karkare’s cell phone before terrorists from Pakistan shot him on 26 November 2008. The reports said Karkare neither called nor received any call from Singh during that period.
“I am absolutely firm about having spoken to Karkare and I have already stated this,” he told reporters on the sidelines of an interaction with Congress workers at Rajiv Bhavan in Guwahati.
Earlier, former Assam chief minister and Opposition leader Prafulla Kumar Mahanta attacked Digvijay Singh for using Karkare as a weapon for creating communal divide in the country. “Insinuating Hindu extremists for Karkare’s death is typical Congress policy of diverting attention from scams such as 2G and pandering to vote-bank politics,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Earlier, former Assam chief minister and Opposition leader Prafulla Kumar Mahanta attacked Digvijay Singh for using Karkare as a weapon for creating communal divide in the country. “Insinuating Hindu extremists for Karkare’s death is typical Congress policy of diverting attention from scams such as 2G and pandering to vote-bank politics,” he said.
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