Daya is linked to Dawood: Munde

MUMBAI, May 20: Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde today said the crime branch is in possession of records that expose former sheriff Sad...

MUMBAI, May 20: Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde today said the crime branch is in possession of records that expose former sheriff Sadruddin Daya’s links with Karachi-based don Dawood Ibrahim. Daya is a prime accused in the Rs 1,500-crore cobbler scam.

“After careful examination of records and a vigil over Daya’s activities for over a month, we have come to the conclusion that he has links with Dawood,” Munde told media persons after the weekly cabinet meeting. He said information collected by the crime branch has revealed that Daya never used telephones at his residence to call Dawood, instead he used STD booth across his house.

“Since all these records have been submitted to the court, his plea for bail was rejected by the court,” the deputy chief minister, who also holds the home portfolio, claimed.

Munde said the Intelligence Bureau had on August 31, 1995 alerted the state government about the possible Daya-Dawood links. This information was passed on to the then Commissioner of Police Satish Sahaney and was later confirmed following investigations by DCP Hemant Karkare and late Deepak Jog.

The minister said a charge-sheet in the multi-crore scam would be filed within a fortnight. “All formalities have been completed and now I do not think that it should be difficult for the crime branch to file a charge-sheet,” he said.

Munde also said that Datta Padsalgikar, the new Deputy Commissioner of Police (Economic Offences Wing), will now be assisted by three deputy commissioners of his choice to carry out the investigations.Replying to a volley of questions on the controversial transfer of DCP Sanjay Pandey, Munde said it was unfortunate that the media gave too much importance to a routine transfer.

“Even before Pandey joined the crime branch, the officials there had already begun investigating into the multi-crore shoe scam,” Munde said. He added that “besides EOW officials, Joint Registrar of Cooperative Societies Sudhir Thackeray has also done a remarkable job. On the basis of a small piece of information, Thackeray did tremendous ground work to reach the main culprits,” Munde pointed out.

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Munde said in view of his competence and high integrity, Pandey was given full freedom. So much so that even the lawyers appearing for the state in the cobbler scam were appointed by his choice.

“Unfortunately, I had to tender unconditional apology to the members of Bar Council of Maharashtra and to the Western India Association of Advocates for his derogatory remarks against a prominent lawyer,” he added.

Terming Pandey’s charge that he stopped him from arresting Sitaram Ghandat – one of the accused in the Abhyudaya Bank fraud case – as false and baseless, Munde said it was he who cleared the investigations by EOW into the cobbler scam as well as the Abhyudaya Bank scandal.

Munde said as a policy, his government had now decided to transfer all the police inspectors and deputy superintendents of police/assistant commissioners of police after they completed seven years at one place.