Govt rejects Antulay's conspiracy theory

NEW DELHI: Government rejected the conspiracy theory propounded by union minister AR Antulay on Tuesday over the death of Hemant Karkare, saying questions raised about the circumstances in which the former Maharashtra ATS chief was killed are "wrong and deeply regrettable".

Making a statement in the Lok Sabha in the wake of persisting demands by the opposition after Antulay made the controversial remarks last week, home minister P Chidambaram said there is "no truth in the different versions that have been circulated about the movement of Karkare on that fateful day."
  
Amid slogan-shouting by the NDA members, Chidambaram gave details of sequence of events that led to the killing of Karkare and other two officers when terrorists struck in
Mumbai on November 26.

"The investigators have reached the conclusion that there is no truth whatsoever in the suspicion that there was a conspiracy to eliminate Shri Karkare or others," the home
minister said.
   
"There is no truth in the different versions that have been circulated about the movement of Karkare on that fateful day," he asserted, rejecting the theory of conspiracy
propounded by Antulay who has questioned who sent the ATS chief to Cama Hospital and demanded an inquiry into it. 

"In the days before his death, questions were raised about the genuineness of the investigations that were being conducted by Shri Karkare in a terrorist case. After his
death, questions are being raised about the circumstances in which he was killed. In my view, both are wrong and deeply regrettable," Chidambaram said.
   
As Chidambaram was about to make the statement on 'circumstances leading to the death of Shri Hemant Karkare and other officers of the Mumbai Police', leader of opposition LK Advani raised objection, saying the opposition's demand was a
statement not on the circumstances but on Antulay's comments.
 
"The House is agitated by the statement made by Antulay and not due to the circumstances leading to the death of Karkare," the BJP leader said.

Speaker Somnath Chatterjee asked Advani to allow the home minister to make the statement first and then comment on it.  However, Chatterjee's repeated pleas failed to persuade Advani and the speaker asked Chidambaram to make the statement.

This prompted Advani to lead a walkout of BJP and other associate members of NDA. 

"They have a right to walk out. I can't stop them. It is their democratic right," the speaker said while the BJP and associate members left the House.
    
Soon after the home minister started reading out his statement, the BJP and other NDA members returned to the House, shouting slogans. As the slogan-shouting continued, the speaker asked Chidambaram, who was half-way through his statement, to lay the statement on the table of the House and adjourned the House for nearly two hours till 2 pm.

In the statement, Chidambaram said the investigators had arrived at the conclusion that there was no conspiracy to kill Karkare on the basis of three eye-witnesses, including Mohammad Ajmal Amir, the terrorist who was involved in the attack and was apprehended from the scene of the crime. 

Other two eye-witnesses were Arun Jadhav, a police naik who was also travelling along with Karkare and two other officers in the Qualis vehicle, and Maruti Madhavrao Phad, the driver of a government vehicle provided for the use of Maharashtra principal secretary (health), he said.
    
"The investigators have reconstructed the sequence of events by talking to a number of people including police officers and policemen who were present at different locations," the home minister said citing report from Maharashtra government.

"The investigators have reached the conclusion that Shri Karkare took the most convenient route from his residence at Dadar (East) to the CST railway station and after conferring with the police officers at the railway station, decided to proceed to Cama Hospital," he said.