Karkare’s Wife Raps State Govt, Cops for Not Giving Reinforcements during 26/11

Slamming state government and the police department, slain ATS chief Hemant Karkare’s wife Kavita Karkare has said that she is yet to get a concrete answer about how her husband died during 26/11 attacks. Almost a year has passed since the incidence.

“I have repeatedly met senior police officers to find out how my husband died. But no one has given me any answer. I have been told that I will never know how he died,” Kavita said.

“Even his bulletproof vest has gone missing – the vest’s procurement file marks it missing. I always suspected they would say that the jacket has gone missing,” she added.

“My relatives in the US say they are embarrassed to say that the chief of our anti-terrorist squad was killed by terrorists,” Kavita said.

She charged that police department was providing wrong details about the circumstances under which her husband died.

She said that it was being said  that her husband, Ashok Kamte and Vijay Salaskar were killed because they went into the operation blindly, but the truth is that they kept asking for reinforcements and help for 40 minutes, which they never got.

Even 40 minutes after they were killed, she said she was hurt to know, their bodies lay on the road while the terrorists’ bodies were sent to the hospital soon after being recovered.

“For 40 minutes, their bodies were there on the road while the terrorists bodies were rushed to the hospital. They have spent Rs 22 crore on preserving the bodies of the nine terrorists. But they couldn’t be careful enough to preserve my husband’s bulletproof jacket,” Kavita said.

However, she added that in spite of the glaring omissions by the state government and the police, she wouldn’t pursue the matter.

“I don’t have the mental or physical strength to follow this up. My children need me. After my husband, they have only me and I need to give them the emotional strength. That is my first priority,” Kavita said.

She put the onus on the media and the society for getting answers to her questions.

Former deputy commissioner of police YP Singh, who organised the function, said he would ensure that the matter is taken to its logical conclusion.

“We have already filed a public interest litigation in the Bombay High Court, seeking a probe on the missing bulletproof vest and also on the missing file. We have also applied with the JJ Marg police to file an FIR of the missing vest,” he said.