Khadse-Dawood calls: HC orders hacker to prove claim in 4 weeks

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Tuesday directed ethical hacker Manish Bhangale to produce documents to prove his claim that former Maharashtra revenue minister

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Tuesday directed ethical hacker Manish Bhangale to produce documents to prove his claim that former Maharashtra revenue minister Eknath Khadse was in regular touch with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

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A division bench comprising justices Naresh Patil and PD Naik granted Bhangale four weeks to produce such documentary proof before the court.

The bench was hearing a plea filed by Bhangale seeking a CBI probe into the phone calls between the former minister and Dawood.

On Tuesday, Bhangale, who claims to be an ethical hacker from Vadodra, told HC that he had hacked the authentication process of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd in April this year from which he acquired the telephone records of underworld fugitive Dawood Ibrahim. The landline number, he said, was registered under Ibrahim’s wife’s name.

He told HC that the call records had revealed phone calls between Dawood and Khadse.

He said that he was approached by the Mumbai Police’s crime branch after media reports on the phone calls and that he gave them all information and also a written statement but the crime branch refused to file a complaint.

Bhangale also said that he tried to get in touch with the Prime Minister’s office and the office of National Security Advisor but received no response.

He said that instead of perusing evidence and registering his complaint, the state government and police rushed to give a clean chit to the minister and thus, the CBI must be directed to probe the incident.