Congress Indirectly Helping Pakistan With Comment on Hemant Karkare: Ujjwal Nikam to Arnab

Mumbai: Advocate Ujjwal Nikam, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate for the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 from Mumbai North Central, was in conversation with Republic Media Network Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami on Monday. The public prosecutor, known for the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks case in 2008, expressed his opinion about the recent remarks of Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar on Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) Chief Hemant Karkare’s death during the attacks. Wadettiwar serves as the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Maharashtra Assembly. 

Vijay Wadettiwar mentioned that it was written in a book that Hemant Karkare was killed by a police officer affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) during the 26/11 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. The book in question is 'Who killed Karkare? The real face of terrorism in India', authored by former Maharashtra Inspector General of Police SM Mushrif.

Congress trying to peddle theories on 26/11

Now, Ujjwal Nikam is in the middle of a political controversy again. Congress has tried to peddle theories on 26/11, calling it a Right Wing conspiracy. Nikam was a voice of victims of the 26/11 terror attacks in court.

Will the attack on Ujjwal Nikam backfire on the Congress?

To Arnab Goswami’s question to Ujjwal Nikam about the Hemant Karkare comment backfiring on the Congress, he said, “Let me tell you very frankly. After the BJP declared my candidature, Wadettiwar made two baseless, reckless statements. First, he said that ‘Nikam is a traitor’, and then said that Hemant Karkare was killed by RSS. The next day, he changed his statement and relied on the Mushrif book." 

He added that Mushrif was never involved in this and never said that. As for the killing of Hemant Karkare, Nikam said, "Mr Mushrif was not concerned with the investigation at all. In 2014, Congress was the ruling party and Mr Mushrif had never raised this issue...his brother was also in the cabinet. Now, why he (Wadettiwar) made such baseless allegations against me, when Ajmal Kasab has himself admitted in the judicial confession that ‘Myself and (another terrorist) came out of Cama Hospital. We saw the police jeep coming, and we opened fire, in which three police officers died’. Not only that. We have examined the eyewtinesses. There is ample evidence of it (Karkare’s killing by the terrorists).”

On the ‘biryani’ comment about Ajmal Kasab

On Ajmal Kasab being served biryani in jail, which Nikam supposedly claimed then, he gave an explanation that it was “Kasab had demanded biryani… I didn’t say that he had been served biryani. On the next day, Advocate Kazvi, Kasab's lawyer raised this issue in the court. And the court made an enquiry with Kasab, who did not deny it. Now, whether he asked for the biryani or not, is within his knowledge and mine. Now, why I made that statement…it's a long story, which I will divulge on camera to you on the next sitting."

Is the Congress defending Ajmal Kasab?

“Congress party not only maligned my image, but also indirectly helping Pakistan with these reckless comments by the Leader of Opposition. They should understand how Pakistan is going to make use of this statement. I must condemn this statement in the strongest possible terms. I will divulge more facts on this issue after sometime,” said Ujjwal Nikam to Arnab’s question whether the Congress was defending Ajmal Kasab when it asked for an investigation into the killing of Hemant Karkare.

Ajmal Kasab was the prime accused in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, and was captured by the Mumbai Police. On November 21, 2012, in the early morning, Ajmal Kasab was hanged to death at the Yerawada Central Jail in Pune, Maharashtra.

Ujjwal Nikam’s main cases as public prosecutor

Apart from the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, the other high-profile cases of Ujjwal Nikam include the 1993 Bombay bombings, the 1997 Gulshan Kumar murder case, and the 2006 Pramod Mahajan murder case, among others.