Mumbai Police says no calls between Eknath Khadse and underworld don Dawood's phones

Mumbai police on Sunday said that no calls were made or received on Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse's phone from underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's number as claimed by Aam Aadmi Party leader Preeti Sharma Menon.

"Our initial analysis of the cell phone number (belonging to Khadse) indicated that there were neither outgoing nor incoming calls from this number to that of the fugitive (Dawood) during the entire period of September 2015 to April 2016, as stated in the (AAP) press conference," Mumbai Joint Commissioner of Police (crime) Atulchandra Kulkarni said.

The AAP leader, in a press conference on Saturday, had alleged that the Maharashtra minister had received several calls from Dawood Ibrahim's wife Mehjabeen Shaikh's number 021-35871639 between September 4, 2015 and April 5, 2016.

Menon further claimed that the Maharashtra Chief Minister had asked the police to investigate the matter.

Khadse has dismissed the allegations as "baseless" stating the particular number was not in use for the last one year.

Kulkarni said, "When the issue of contact of the Maharashtra government minister with Mumbai underworld fugitive Dawood Ibrahim, who is abroad, cropped up, we checked the details."