Prakash Ambedkar, the founder of Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, said on Tuesday that Pawar had ignored an offer from the 1993 Bombay bombings mastermind to surrender.
Dreaded fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim Parkar has cast a shadow over NCP chief Sharad Pawar's career once again.
Prakash Ambedkar, the founder of Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, said on Tuesday that Pawar had ignored an offer from the 1993 Bombay bombings mastermind to surrender.
"Dawood had met (lawyer and MP) Ram Jethmalani in London, and proposed to surrender," said Ambedkar, adding "He was ready to participate in the judicial process and even go to jail. He had only one condition — third-degree torture should not be used on him." Pawar was the chief minister of Maharashtra then and the UPA government was at the Centre. Pawar's associate, who was a minister in his cabinet between 1993 and 1995, confirmed that Jethmalani had approached Pawar with the surrender proposal, but the other condition – that the gangster be kept under house arrest instead of prison — were strongly rejected by the state police and government.
The same spectre had haunted the Maratha leader in 1994-95 in the run-up to the Assembly elections, when the leader of Opposition, Gopinath Munde said Pawar had failed in bringing Dawood to justice.
The BJP leader had promised that the BJP-Sena government would bring the gangster to book. Pawar repeatedly offered clarifications, but the damage was done and the Sena-BJP alliance emerged victorious. This poll year, Pawar is placed as the fulcrum of Opposition unity, which has NCP leaders questioning the timing of Ambedkar's allegation. So far, Ambedkar has been keeping his distance from both alliances in the state– BJP-Shiv Sena and Congress-NCP.
Party spokesman Nawab Malik said Ambedkar was trying to help the BJP, and that Pawar had repeatedly offered a justification of his stand. He further questioned why Jethmalani could not facilitate Dawood's surrender during his tenure as Law minister.
Gangster Conditions
The 1993 Bombay bombings mastermind was allegedly willing to give himself up on two conditions:
- 1 He should not be subjected to third- degree torture;
- 2 He should be placed under house arrest
- Sharad Pawar was Maha CM then and said the conditions were inacceptable to cops and his govt
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