Bombay High Court refuses to hear hacker's plea over 'Khadse-Dawood links'

The vacation bench of the Bombay High Court on Monday refused to hear a petition filed by Vadodra-based hacker Manish Bhangale regarding agriculture minister Eknath Khadse's alleged Dawood links. Citing there was no urgency, the court directed Bhangale to mention his plea before a regular bench on June 6.

The "ethical hacker", who claimed to have accessed the call records of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim, had sought police protection and a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe against Khadse. He has claimed that he has been receiving death threats ever since he brought the issue to light.

Bhangale said he hacked the authentication process of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd in April, from which he acquired Dawood's telephone records. Besides other information that he obtained, there were details of alleged phone calls between Dawood and Khadse.

Bhangale's petition stated, "After the media broke the news, I was approached by Mumbai police's crime branch, which took all the information from me, but no case has been registered till date. Instead of recording statements and perusing evidence, the state government and police have shown haste in giving a clean chit to the minister."

The plea, filed through advocate Sandesh Sawant, has sought constitution of a special CBI team to probe the matter and submit periodical reports to the court. Bhangale has also sought protection for himself, saying there are threats to his life.