Did Karkare call Digvijay? Maha govt says no records

In an embarrassment to Digvijay Singh, Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil today said there was no existence of any record of the purported telephonic conversation between the Congress general secretary and slain anti-terror squad chief Hemant Karkare.

"It is his (Digvijay's) personal opinion. The state police machinery does not have any record of his conversation with Karkare on that fateful day," Patil said while making a suo moto statement under Rule 48 in the Lower House.

Digvijay Singh had said Karkare called him hours before he was gunned down in the 26/11 attacks and said he was under threat from right-wing Hindu groups. Karkare sounded perturbed at being threatened after he framed charges against sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and others in the Malegaon blast case, Digvijay said.

"But Karkare was a victim of a terror attack in Mumbai and was gunned down by the terrorists," Patil said.

Digvijay's revelation of this telephonic conversation last week had created a flutter.

He, however, subsequently clarified that he never doubted the role of Pakistani elements in the Mumbai attacks.

Congress has distanced itself from Digvijay's statement, saying the matter was "a conversation between two individuals".

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