Shashi Tharoor seeks 'serious investigation' into Hemant Karkare's death

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Monday sought a "serious investigation" into his party leader Vijay Wadettiwar's controversial claim that former Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare was killed by a policeman close to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

"It seems to me that this allegation should have been seriously investigated. And it is not too late. Because on such an important matter, the nation has every right to know what really happened," Tharoor said while speaking to news agency ANI.

Emphasising that the "matter is extremely serious", Tharoor said, "We are not saying that the allegation is definitely true. We are saying it should be investigated".

"Our concern is that when the LoP points to something which is an allegation that has been in the public domain for some time and which featured in a book by the former IG of police, Mushrif, who said that the bullets found in Karkare's body could not have been fired by the Ajmal Kasab and that it could have been fired by a police revolver," the Thiruvananthapuram MP added.

Furthermore, Tharoor also slammed the then prosecutor and BJP candidate Ujjwal Nikam, accusing him of perpetuating an unfounded myth that Ajmal Kasab was served Biryani in jail.

"We already had known that he (Ujjwal Nikam) had propagated this unjustified myth that the Pakistani terrorist was served Biryani in prison and that is something that shows him in a very poor light. If, indeed, he has already revealed his political bias in that moment, then there is every reason to worry whether his political bias had influenced any other of his stands. We are not saying that the allegation is true. We are saying it should be investigated," Tharoor said.

Meanwhile, Congress's INDIA bloc ally Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut claimed that there was a struggle going on between RSS and Hemant Karkare as his team had arrested Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and Colonel Purohit in connection with the Malegaon blast case.

"Hemant Karkare died fighting for the country when terrorists entered Mumbai. He was the ATS chief at that time. Vijay Wadettiwar did not say this for the first time. There was a struggle going on between RSS and Hemant Karkare," Raut said.

"ATS had arrested two people, Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and Colonel Purohit, in connection with terrorist activities. Both were connected to RSS. I think this is the reason why this theory came up," he added.

THE CONTROVERSY

Wadettiwar stirred a massive political row after he claimed that Hemant Karkare was not killed by terrorists during the 26/11 attack but by a police official close to the RSS.

However, Wadettiwar later issued a clarification and said that those were not his words but had been mentioned in the book authored by SM Mushrif, a former Inspector General of Police, in Maharashtra.

Hemant Karkare was killed on duty while fighting terrorists in Mumbai in 2008. Ajmal Kasab was the only terrorist who was captured alive after the deadly attack in country's financial capital. He was hanged in Pune in 2012.

(With inputs from Mustafa Saikh.)