A week after the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) issued summons to hacker Manish Bhangale, officials say he has still not appeared before them.
A week after the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) issued summons to hacker Manish Bhangale, officials say he has still not appeared before them. Officials further add that Mr Bhangale has not even sent a reply to the summons.
The ATS issued summons to Mr Bhangale on June 3 asking him to appear before them with the data that he had obtained. Mr Bhangale had claimed he had hacked into the Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL) and accessed records of calls made by landline numbers at underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s house.
These call records allegedly reflected senior BJP leader Eknath Khadse’s number and featured in the frequent calling list too.
Following this, the Mumbai police looked into the issue, wherein a team headed by then joint commissioner of police (crime), Atulchandra Kulkarni announced that call records of Mr Khadse’s service provider did not reflect any call made or received from Pakistan or from the alleged numbers said to belong to Dawood.
After chief minister Devendra Fadnavis asked the ATS to look into the issue, it issued fresh summons to Mr Bhangale.
“We issued summons so could investigate the case thoroughly. How are we to begin the investigation if we haven’t received the data ” said a senior ATS official.
Meanwhile, on the day the summons was issued, Mr Bhangale sent a letter to the Mumbai police commissioner alleging that Mr Kulkarni, who is now the ATS chief, had “sent his henchmen to kidnap him”.
“Our officers had gone to issue him summons, not to harm him. These allegations are baseless,” said an officer. Mr Bhangale has meanwhile filed a petition in the Bombay high court demanding a CBI inquiry in the issue citing that the Mumbai Police was “very quick and overzealous” in getting the blame off Mr Khadse.
Sources in the ATS said Mr Bhangale had acknowledged the receipt of the letter sent by them. “But he hasn’t written to us explaining whether he can appear before us with the data or not. The investigation cannot proceed till he hands us the data and explains it to us,” said an officer. The officers are now contemplating approaching the court if the court agrees to Mr Bhangale’s request for a CBI inquiry in the issue.
