Hemant Karkare

Hemant Karkare
Police career
Country	Anti-Terror Squad
Department	Indian Police Service officer
Service years	1982-2008
Rank	Joint Commissioner of Police (ATS Chief)
Awards	Ashoka Chakra

Hemant Karkare (Marathi: हेमंत करकरे) (12 December 1954 – 26 November 2008) was the chief of the Mumbai Anti-Terrorist Squad. He was killed during the 2008 Mumbai attacks after being shot three times in the chest. His bravery was honoured with the Ashoka Chakra on 26 January 2009.

Karkare succeeded KP Raghuvanshi as the Chief of ATS in January 2008 and was eventually succeeded by Raghuvanshi after he was killed on 26 November 2008. He was involved in the investigation of the serial bomb blasts in Thane, Vashi and Panvel, and led the investigation of the 29 September blast in Malegaon.

Education and career

Karkare came from a Maharashtrian Karhade Brahmin family. Karkare obtained a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur. After graduation he worked for National productivity council, Government of India and then Hindustan Lever Limited now Hindustan Unilever Ltd., India's largest FMCG company.

He joined the Indian Police Service (IPS) as a member of the 1982 batch. Before becoming ATS Chief of Maharashtra State in January 2008, he was Joint Commissioner of Police (Administration) of Mumbai Police. He served seven years in Austria in the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India's external intelligence agency. According to former senior Mumbai Police officer Y.C. Pawar, Mr. Karkare was regarded as 'very, very honest' in police circles.(Times of India Nov.28 2008)

Malegaon investigation

On 29 September 2008, three bombs exploded in Modasa, Gujarat and Malegaon, Maharashtra killing eight persons, and injuring 80. Several unexploded bombs were found in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Hemant Karkare, as the chief of the state Anti-Terror Squad, led the investigation into the 2008 Malegoan blasts. In late October the ATS arrested eleven suspects, and alleged that some radical Hindu groups were behind the blasts.

Opposition parties, including the Bharatiya Janta Party and Shiv Sena, and Hindu organizations alleged that the arrests were made under the pressure of the incumbent government, in an attempt to appease India's Muslim population. Some BJP, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) leaders accused the ATS of being used as a tool to attack the Sangh Parivar and of using illegal detention and torture.

Death

At 9.45 p.m. while having his dinner at his Dadar residence, he received a call about a terrorist attack at C.S.T. (earlier V.T.) station. He switched on the TV for news and left at once with his driver and bodyguards for C.S.T. There he donned a bullet-proof vest and helmet(shown on news channels live then), and went to Platform No.1 but found it deserted. He was then informed that the terrorists had moved to the Cama and Albless Hospital (in brief Cama) next to the Azad Maidan police station. At the police station he met Addl. Commissioner, East Region Ashok Kamte who was summoned for his cool temper and negotiation skills and Sr. Inspector Salaskar, who was returning from Colaba after interrogating detained persons. The operation was difficult as it was dark and the terrorists were well prepared and virtually on a fidayeen mission. When these officers with a few constables went to Cama from the back side and Kamte fired at the terrorists, the terrorists retaliated with a hand grenade. Kamte then suggested to confront the terrorists from the front entrance of Cama. So a couple of constables were stationed at the back entrance of Cama and the rest boarded a Qualis jeep of an ACP. As they were moving, Salaskar asked the driver to let him drive. About that time, they heard on the wireless that the terrorists were hiding behind a red car. As they turned from the Crime Branch office towards Rang Bhavan looking for the red car, near the Corporation Bank ATM, they saw a terrorist running. Kamte or Salaskar or both fired, the bullet hitting the terrorist on his arm, his AK-47 fell down. He was Kasab, the lone terrorist captured alive later. As they were thinking of getting down, the second terrorist, Ibrahim Khan fired a volley of bullets on them and all but one Assistant Police Inspector Jadhav died. ( Times of India 19 Dec. 2008 )

Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte, Salaskar and others laid down their lives fighting terrorists during the Mumbai attacks, on 27 November 2008 in a narrow lane between St. Xaviers College and Rang Bhavan, just a stone throw away from the Crime Branch office.

Indian Express quotes statements by Constable Arun Jadhav, who was with the officers Hemant Karkare, Vijay Salaskar and Ashok Kamte when they died. The three officers and four constables had received information that Sadanand Date had been injured in the gunfire at the Cama and Albless Hospital for women and children. Located at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), a ten-minute drive from the hospital, they took a Toyota Qualis and proceeded in that direction. Salaskar was driving, Kamte in the passenger seat, Karkare in the second row, and the four constables, including Jadhav, were in the back row of seating. According to Jadhav, five minutes later, two terrorists stepped out from behind a tree and opened fire with AK-47 automatic rifles. The six policemen, other than Jadhav, were all killed quickly in the gunfire. Kamte was the sole officer who managed to retaliate, wounding terrorist Ajmal in the arm. The wounded Jadhav had no opportunity to render assistance. The two terrorists approached the vehicle, dumped the bodies of the three officers on the road and, leaving the constables for dead, proceeded to Metro Cinema. Upon arrival, they aimed three bursts of automatic fire at the police and press vehicles drawn up at that location, then drove off towards the government offices (Vidhan Bhawan) in South Mumbai. Here again they fired several times. While attempting to leave the area, one of the tires of the vehicle burst, so the terrorists departed to obtain another. At this point, Jadhav was able to contact headquarters. The bodies of the dead were recovered and taken to St George Hospital.

Controversies

Some controversies have appeared in India about the circumstances of Hemant Karkare's assassination. These controversies are found in a 2009 book written by S.M. Mushrif, former IG of Maharashtra and collaborator to Karkare: Who killed Karkare ? and are reinforced by the opening of official investigations in 2010. These controversies take place in India in a general setting, where doubts raise about the incentives behind the exploitation of "communal riots" between hindus and muslims, as there is suspiscion that these riots may find their roots (as well as financial support) in political extremism and agenda coming from outside India. These interrogations raise the suspiscion of active israeli extremism and intelligence backing up some of the triggering of communal riots in India.

Investigations note that prior to his death, Hemant Karkare received death threats. In an interview to The Indian Express two days prior to his death he talked about how much pressure he was under and how cautiously they were treading, saying if there was a suspect with Hindutvadi links they would cross-check the evidence multiple times before even questioning, unlike for other suspects whom they could question freely.

Initial Response

A few days after the 26/11 Mumbai attack which took away Karkare's life, in December 2008, when the Minority Affairs Minister A R Antulay expressed doubts that terrorists had killed Karkare, Kamte and Salaskar, Antulay distanced himself from the claim after which he changed his statement and said that he had not questioned who killed the three officers but rather who sent them in the direction of CAMA hospital.

Bullet Proof Jack goes missing

In the clips of the last moments of Karkare life he was shown wearing a shoddy helmet (the kind that riot police use) and a flimsy bullet proof jacket, which obviously did not provide the protection it was meant to and when it went missing it raised a lot of questions.

In response to a Right to Information (RTI) application filed by Karkare's wife, Kavita Karkare, the Maharashtra government told her that the jacket Karkare was wearing on the day he was killed has been misplaced in the chaos. Earlier to this RTI application, the Maharashtra government was in the midst of a controversy over the quality of bulletproof jackets provided to the Mumbai Police.

Court Inconclusive on who actually killed Hemant Karkare

But now with Justice Tahaliyani's verdict which pronounced Kasab quilty of waging war against India, a stunning conclusion which was largely ignored by the Indian Media was that according to ballistic experts Hemant Karkare was not gunned down by Pakistani terrorist Kasab and his accomplice. Constable Jadhav, the sole survivor and eye witness to the killings of the three officers, Karkare, Salaskar and Kamte was branded a "liar" by Justice Tahiliyani, who went on to say that Jadhav's version was wrong. It should be noted that Constable Jadhav changed his version a few times.

"Who killed Karkare ?"

S.M. Mushrif, former IG of Maharashtra, suggests in his book that Karkare was not killed by Pakistani terrorists who attacked the Taj. Mushrif accuses India's intelligence agency, the Intelligence Bureau (whom he openly accuses of spreading Saffron Terror in India) to have used the attack on Mumbai to get rid of Hemant Karkare since he had been uncovering Hindutva links of bomb blasts which had been rocking major cities in India.

PIL filed in Supreme Court on India

In May 2010 a Public Interest Litigation as filed by Radhakant Yadav to probe into Karkare’s killing. Radhakhant is a 3-time Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Madhepura constituency in Bihar (India). The PIL was rejected by Supreme Court on May 12 but granted liberty for the petitioner to approach High Court. The petition "submitted that there was an abject failure of the state of unparalleled magnitude in protecting the citizens of the country from terrorists, including the death of officers like ATS chief Karkare". Radhakant Yadav believes that some Hindu fundamentalist groups are related with the killing of Karkare. ·

See also

• Sandeep Unnikrishnan
• Vijay Salaskar
• Ashok Kamte
• Sadanand Date