The amount of secrecy they maintained,they couldnt have used local support during the attack

From being in charge of the Mumbai Police Control Room during 26/11 to heading the probe into the attack,Rakesh Maria,Mumbai Polices Joint Commissioner (Crime Branch),has been more closely associated with the carnage than any other senior officer. Days before the first anniversary of 26/11,Maria revisited the nightmare in an interview with Y P Rajesh and Sagnik Chowdhury. Excerpts

This was an open-and-shut case. You had loads of evidence plus Kasab in your custody. So was this much easier than your previous investigations?

Everyone said it is an open-and-shut case. The biggest challenge for us was to ensure that nobody picks holes in our investigations. This case and our chargesheet would need to stand not only judicial scrutiny but also a microscopic look by security agencies all over the world. And before judicial scrutiny we had to pass media scrutiny. That itself was trial by fire. Our case was not only the conviction of Kasab but also to prove the conspiracy,how Lashkar organised,conspired,trained,equipped and launched these people from there,how they were receiving motivational and operational inputs from them.

But you also received significant assistance from foreign security agencies.

When the history of terrorism is written this will be a watershed event. Security agencies from all over the world came here to find out how it happened. What are the lessons to be learnt? During the investigation we had representatives of the FBI,Scotland Yard,New York Police,the Japanese,the Israelis,the Italians,the Koreans,the Singaporeans,all of them came here and went through what we have investigated. This is the first time the FBI has testified in a court of law outside the US. We will produce the evidence which we are able to collect. We dont want to do anything bogus. We have been telling Pakistan in the dossiers we have sent that this is the evidence we have found and you take up the evidence from here,since we have our limitations investigating from here. I think if they do it sincerely,nothing like it.

Why has the investigation not been able to fully establish the local help the attackers got? How is it possible to carry out such an attack without local help?

The amount of secrecy they maintained,they simply could not have used local support during the attack. Kasab said CD dikhaye humko,which means somebody has come and filmed it. But it was simply not possible (local help) during the attack. If they were in touch telephonically then,we would have come to know. Even if it was earlier we would have come to know. Sitting here,my hands are somewhat tied in the investigation. If I had been given access,if I go there and my team is allowed to investigate there (in Pakistan),maybe we will be able to investigate much more. Remember,Kasab would not be privy to all things. He is a foot soldier. The main brains are there. And this is what we have been telling Pakistan.

Did state-actors in Pakistan have a role at all in the conspiracy? The investigation has not nailed that either.

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You have training camps all over the country. In the training camps you are teaching them how to fire AKs,lob hand grenades and make IED,you mean to say that the local police and the local security agencies would not know that something like this is happening? If you are allowing that to happen that means there is complicity,there is tacit support.

Number two,a normal schoolteacher will not be able to teach you how to lob hand grenades,how to fire AKs,how to make IEDs how to fire rocket launchers. Who would teach you? Either a serving Army person or an ex-Army person. What does this indicate? If you hear the telephone intercepts,Brigadier Saab Brigadier Saab they say. What is that? There has to be a serving person or a retired person,and the type of inputs he is giving you,the operational inputs,it has to be somebody who knows operational working. I am getting 10 fellows with AKs and explosives and sending them on a ferry wharf and nobody knows how they went? And through e-mail contact we have been able to pinpoint that he,a serving officer in the communication field,is in regular touch with the LeT top brass and he is still active.

How did you end up being in charge of the Control Room when the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) says it should be the Joint CP (Law and Order)? There was a lot of confusion over the SOP and deployment that night.

There was no SOP for such an operation. We had a SOP for a blast. Confusion,I beg to differ. In the first four hours we received 1,365 terrorist related calls in the Control Room and we attended to all. These are all logged. If you see the deployment we have sent forces to all locations. In hindsight it is very easy to say this could have been done,that could have been done. As for the Commissioner (Hassan Gafoor),if he had remained here,the criticism would have been he never went down to the field. He went down to the field and they say he should have been here. I feel I shouldnt have been in the Control Room it is a regret. I told Mr Gafoor,Sir,why did you have to send me there? Today I am bearing the cross. Unfortunately for me,I am alive. I wish I was dead or I wish I was injured. That is the only way I could have proved… It is unfortunate that people felt that only if you were shot or you were dead you did work on that night.

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What really happened with Hemant Karkare,Ashok Kamte and Vijay Salaskar? How did they end up together and get ambushed?

It was purely coincidental. Karkare,last we knew he was at VT and then he informed the Control Room,I think that must have been around 23:25,he is at Cama (Hospital). But Kamte,he was not supposed to be coming here. He had already spoken to the Commissioner of Police on the phone and the Commissioner had asked him to come to The Oberoi-Trident. We in the Control Room did not know,I did not know. He asked the Control Room,maajha sathi aadesh,maajha sathi aadesh (What are my orders,what are my orders)? A constable came and asked me,Sir thaey Kamte sir vichaartat maajha saathi aadesh (Sir,Kamte sir wants to know what his orders are). I was under the impression that he was at his location so I asked him what his location was. So he says location is on P DMello Road. That time the message of (Additional Commissioner Sadanand) Dates fighting at Cama was going on and there was some information that there is some problem at SB-I (Special Branch-I) so I told him there is some problem at SB-I so you go to SB-I lane.

There have been strong insinuations that you deliberately sent them towards danger.

You cant blame her (Kamtes wife,Vinita). Her loss is irreparable. I wouldnt blame her at all. But these are the facts. Its not that I knew something is going to happen there. And ultimately nothing happened either at Cama or SB-I,it happened somewhere else. And their leaving Cama and going to Rang Bhavan lane is not known to anybody.

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But there was also rivalry between Karkares Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and your Crime Branch?

It is absolute humbug. Karkare and me,during the Indian Mujahideen investigation as well as Sadhvi Pragya and other cases,we have exchanged a lot of information. He has come and sat with me late into the nights discussing how we should proceed. People like to create stories. Just because we detected the IM doesnt mean the ATS was not involved. They also detect cases. There is healthy competition and I think its good. Kamte and me,because both of us were sportsmen,we enjoyed a very healthy rivalry. He was an outstanding guy. When it comes to sheer guts and courage I dont think there would be any parallel to him in the force. Salaskar was my anti-extortion chief who was controlling the underworld. When he was alive people said he was very close to me. Karkare,Kamte and Salaskar were personally known to me and no matter what people may say it is a personal loss.