Thaindian News

New Delhi, Jan 31 (IANS) Home Minister P. Chidambaram Tuesday admitted there could have been better coordination between the Delhi Police and Maharashtra Police in the July 2011 Mumbai blasts probe and said the proposed National Counter Terrrorism Centre (NCTC) will ensure better exchange of information in terror cases.

Answering questions from media persons, Chidambaram denied there was a botch-up in the probe or an attempt to scuttle investigation.

He said a person identified as suspect by Mumbai Police in the July blasts case was indeed an informer for the Delhi Police.

The minister said it may appear anomalous but is “not impossible” that a person who is informer to one agency is suspect in a case.

“Allow investigations to go forward,” Chidambaram said.

He said he had been informed that there had been an attempt to reconcile differences between the two forces and “reconciliation had taken place”.

Asked if the coordination hassles between two forces had allowed Indian Mujahideen mastermind Yasin Bhatkal to be on the run, Chidambaram said Bhatkal had been on the run for close to two years.

He said the two agencies were working within their jurisdiction.

“I would have liked better exchange (between Delhi Police and Maharashtra Police). There may have been inadequate exchange of information,” Chidambaram said.

Union Home Secretary R.K. Singh had earlier this month denied there was any rift between the Delhi Police and its Mumbai counterpart in cracking the July 2011 blasts probe.

The home ministry claimed that one of the arrested, Naqee Ahmed Sheikh of Darbhanga in Bihar, was in fact an informer who worked for Delhi Police and Intelligence Bureau (IB).

Singh had admitted that Sheikh was an informer but said that didn’t mean he won’t have been involved in the terror strike.