Dawood calls: Hacker expresses doubts over probe by ATS

MUMBAI: While Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) officials waited for ethical hacker Manish Bhangale to visit their headquarters to record his statement regarding the alleged

MUMBAI: While Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) officials waited for ethical hacker Manish Bhangale to visit their headquarters to record his statement regarding the alleged calls made by fugitive gangster Dawwod Ibrahim to BJP leader Eknath Khadse, Bhangale raised doubts about the bona fides of the agency.

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“I had met the senior officers when they were in the Mumbai crime branch and had given them a live demo of how I accessed the concerned documents in the Pakistani telecom company. After the details were revealed, the crime branch officials gave Khadse a clean chit within two hours,” he said.

“The same officers are at the helm of the ATS. The probe should be conducted by a central agency or a judicial probe should be ordered,” Bhangale told HT.

He, however, refused to say if he was prepared to approach the court seeking a transfer of the investigation to another agency.

“They will give him a clean chit again and close the matter,” he said, adding that he had already provided them with the required details.

Bhangale was summoned to the ATS office on Saturday. His lawyers met ATS officers on his behalf and told them that a petition was filed before the Bombay High Court was slated to come up for hearing on Monday, and hence, it would be inappropriate to record Bhangale’s statement at this juncture.

ATS sources stated that the hacker was avoiding the investigators and providing excuses instead of coming forward.

Bhangale is currently at Jalgaon and is being provided security by the local police after receiving threats to back out from what he had revealed.