Mumbai: Senior BJP leader and Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse was on Saturday at the centre of a fresh controversy with the Aam Aadmi Party alleging that calls were made from underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's mansion in Karachi to his mobile phone, a charge rubbished by him.
"The charges are completely baseless. My questions is, how did they find out Dawood's number? If they have found his number, they should have gone to the police," Mr Khadse said, responding to charges by a hacker and the Aam Aadmi Party.
Khadse said he has a written statement from his cellphone carrier stating he has not received any international calls in the last one year.
The Police also backed the minister's claim. "Our initial analysis of the cellphone records indicated there have been neither incoming nor outgoing calls on the minister's number to that of the fugitive (Dawood) during the entire period of September 2015 to April 2016," senior police officer Atul Chandra Kulkarni said.
AAP also sought Khadse's removal from the cabinet led by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
Khadse, viewed as a detractor of Fadnavis, recently found himself in a spot after his 'personal assistant' was arrested for allegedly demanding a bribe of Rs 30 crore in a land settlement case.
Citing a sensational scoop by an 'ethical hacker' Manish Bhangale, the Aam Aadmi Party had demanded Mr Khadse's resignation alleging calls were made from Dawood Ibrahim's residence in Karachi to his mobile phone.
Though Khadse has dismissed the allegations as "baseless" stating the particular telephone number was not in use for last one year, AAP spokesperson Preeti Sharma Menon claimed otherwise.
"Eknath Khadse lied about his phone being out of service. His number 9423073667 received several calls from Dawood Ibrahim's wife Mehjabeen Shaikh's number 021-35871639 between September 4, 2015 and April 5, 2016," Menon told reporters in Mumbai. The AAP leader claimed that CM has asked the Mumbai Police to investigate the matter.
She had on Friday met Fadnavis and raised the issue of call records of four landline numbers registered at the underworld don's mansion in Karachi and of Khadse's name allegedly figuring on the list.
Menon claimed on Saturday that the call details between September 5, 2015 and April 5, 2016 were procured with the help of an "ethical hacker".
The AAP spokesperson claimed that "Police Commissioner's office has contacted Bhangale who has assured all out support to police or any other central investigating agency".
"The call list of frequent internationally dialled numbers from Dawood Ibrahim's home phone also includes Eknath Khadse's number and it was a total lie that Khadse's number was not in service," she said.
Explaining how he got the call data records, Bhangale said he first went to Dubai and got Dawood's wife Mehjabeen's number, hacked it and placed call details request on her behalf to Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL).
