'Karkare wanted to rejoin RAW'

Hemant Karkare, the ATS chief killed during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, wanted to rejoin the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), due to the flak he received from media for the handling of the Malegaon blast case, a friend of the officer said in Mumbai.

Hemant Karkare, the ATS chief killed during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, wanted to rejoin the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India's external intelligence agency, due to the flak he received from media for the handling of the Malegaon blast case, a friend of the officer said in Mumbai.

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"Hemant was fed up with being painted a villain in investigations in the Malegaon blasts. Three days before he was killed, he told me he felt like going back to RAW," Anant Gadgil, who is also spokesperson of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) told PTI.

Asked about his recent article on Karkare in a Marathi newspaper, Gadgil, who was friend of the officer for 23 years, said, "Hemant was frustrated after the flak he got from a section of media, which did not even spare his family."

Karkare was posted in Austria for around seven years in his nine year stint with RAW.