Sweeper says he dumped Karkare’s jacket

The mystery behind the missing bullet-proof jacket of slain Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare took a new turn on Wednesday with a sweeper of a government hospital claiming that he had disposed it off long ago.

The mystery behind the missing bullet-proof jacket of slain Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare took a new turn on Wednesday with a sweeper of a government hospital claiming that he had disposed it off long ago.

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The statement of the sweeper Dinesh Lalji Gatar to a magistrate comes more than a year after Karkare and two other senior police officers were killed by Pakistani terrorists during the 26/11 strikes.

“On the night of November 27, after Karkare’s body was brought to JJ hospital for autopsy, I had mistakenly put the jacket along with bio-medical and non-medical waste in polythene bags which was sent to the Deonar dump grounds for disposal,” the sweeper said in the statement.

Kavita Karkare, wife of the slain officer, said, “This theory had cropped up now because the government is under pressure. I have lost all hopes to get fair justice in this case. The government is under pressure and hence this statement at a late juncture,” she told PTI.

Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Chandra Iyengar said: “I would not like to comment. On matters related to the police, information will come from the official spokesperson or an authorised officer.” Home Minister R.R. Patil also refused to comment . A senior officer in the police commissioner’s office said the jacket may have been lost in the confusion of the injured and dead being wheeled into local hospitals.