If the Mumbai Police today find that their efforts to nail Dawood Ibrahim and his syndicate by pursuing the case of illegal construction of twin shopping malls, Sara and Sahara, have come to naught, they have only themselves to blame. For, the acquittal of Dawood’s brother Iqbal Kaskar and four BMC officials by the special MCOCA court yesterday has more to do with infighting in the police force than lack of evidence.

For now, Mumbai Police Crime Branch will wait for a copy of the judgment before deciding its next move. “Any future course of action will depend on the study and analysis of the judgement,” said Joint Commissioner (Crime) Meeran Borwankar. Last month, then investigating officer of the case, Assistant Commissioner Shankar Kamble wrote a letter to Borwankar saying DCP (Detection) Dhananjay Kamlakar had fudged notings made in the case files. While questions have been raised about the timing of Kamble’s letter, an inquiry is underway to determine the veracity of the allegations. But court records reveal it was Kamble who during cross-examination had said that there was no “direct” evidence to link Kaskar with the other accused civic officials.

Now, Kamble says his allegations against Kamlakar had nothing to do with the outcome of the case. “My allegations are different,” he told The Indian Express. During his deposition on August 11, 2003, Kamble told the court that Kaskar was not in direct contact with CPWD officials and that he was not aware whether any of those officials had made any pecuniary gains from him.

... contd.