Mumbai top cop to probe Dawood’s ‘calls’ to Maharashtra revenue minister Eknath Khadse

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government has asked the Mumbai police commissioner to investigate whether revenue minister Eknath Khadse got any phone call from fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim.

“Khadse has himself requested that the veracity of the news item that has appeared in the media and claims by the hacker should be verified… have told the CP accordingly,” CM Devendra Fadnavis replied in a text message to ET.

According to sources, Mumbai police officials have been in touch with two hackers Manish Bhangale and Jayesh Shah, an ethical hacker from Vadodara, who allegedly hacked into the database of Pakistan Telecommunication. They obtained the “call records” of four landline telephones that are registered in the name of Dawood Ibrahim’s wife Mehjabeen Shaikh.

The Aam Aadmi Party and the ethical hacker have claimed that the number 9423073667 belonged to Khadse and the call records show that a number of calls were made from Dawood’s Karachi home to this number from September 5 last year to April 5, 2016.

Khadse has not denied that it is his phone number, but has said that the allegations were baseless and made without any proof. In a statement, he said the number did belong to him but was not functional for the past one year. He also claimed that he has a letter from the service provider, which says that there were no international calls made from or received in that number and that his SIM card could have been “cloned” by someone.

The AAP sought to dismiss Khadse’s defence. “He is lying and he should resign, we have got telephone bills that show Khadse’s number was still working a month back,” said AAP leader Preeti Sharma Menon.