Chacha: CM turns heat on ATS chief

Maharashtra anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) chief K P Raghuvanshi has come under fire from the Centre,the Chief Minister and the Opposition for going public with details on two men arrested....

Maharashtra anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) chief K P Raghuvanshi has come under fire from the Centre,the Chief Minister and the Opposition for going public with details on two men arrested for an alleged plot to carry out terror strikes in Mumbai. Raghuvanshi had publicly spoken about the alleged cross-border links of the arrested men,Abdul Latif and Riyaz Ali Imtiaz.

Expressing his displeasure with the ATS chief,Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on Wednesday confirmed that the Centre was unhappy about the way information had been divulged and hampered the investigations.

The details of the investigations should not have come out as the investigations may be hampered, Chavan told reporters. I have not received any directive from the Centre on the issue. The Centre is definitely unhappy about the way in which some information has gone outside and has hampered the investigations, Chavan said.

Chavan was noncommittal about the action likely to be taken against Raghuvanshi. He said the government had read his statements to the media and would investigate the matter. Leader of the Opposition Eknath Khadse said that if Raghuvanshi had hampered investigations by going public with the information,then action should be taken against him.

Meanwhile,Raghuvanshi on Wednesday justified the two arrests before representatives of Muslim groups who met him at the ATS office at Byculla. Raghuvanshi told members of the Aman Committee,Movement for Human Welfare and other groups that Latif and Riyaz had been arrested on the basis of specific information and these werent bogus arrests. The ATS chief gave us a patient hearing, said Dr Azimmudin,who was part of the delegation. Similar interactions took place between ATS officials and leaders of the Muslim community after the German Bakery blast.