Thaindian News

Mumbai, May 31 (IANS) The Maharashtra government will “make efforts” to table in the assembly a probe committee’s report on the Nov 26 Mumbai terrorist attacks, Chief Minister Ashok Chavan said here Sunday evening, though the opposition termed the investigation as “an eyewash”.
“We shall make efforts to table the report during the assembly session starting tomorrow,” Chavan told mediapersons.

However, the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party opposition termed the report as an eyewash and demanded a judicial inquiry to probe the lapses by police officials which resulted in 26/11.

Chavan said that after receiving the report by Ram Pradhan, a former home secretary, and V. Balachandran, a former Research and Analysis Wing official, on May 26, he submitted it to a two-member committee headed by state Chief Secretary Johny Joseph to prepare an Action Taken Report (ATR).

“We want to present the report along with the ATR,” Chavan pointed out.

Asked if the report could be presented to the house directly, Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal said that there are certain laid-down customs and guidelines pertaining to such reports which have to be followed as was done in the case of the Justice B.N. Srikrishna Commission report a few years ago.

The Sena’s Ramdas Kadam, opposition leader in the assembly, said he had pointed out during the winter session about some reports indicating that the central intelligence agencies had alerted the state government on Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists planning to attack Mumbai through the Arabian Sea routes.

Both Kadam and BJP state unit chief Nitin Gadkari have demanded that the sole captured Pakistani terrorist, Mohammed Ajmal Amir alias Kasab, should be hanged within two months.

To this, Chavan said that Kasab was being tried by a Special Court and the government would await the court verdict.

Responding to a query on a clean chit to police in the Pradhan committee report, Chavan said that during his interaction with the media last week, the former home secretary had lauded the role of the police and the officers who had sacrificed their lives in the line of duty.

The chief minister’s comments came at a customary session-eve tea-party hosted for the ruling and opposition members.

The assembly session from Monday is likely to be stormy and the opposition hopes to corner the Democratic Front government on various issues, chief being the Mumbai terrorist attacks.