New Delhi: Where is 26/11 Mumbai hero Hemant Karkare's bulletproof jacket?
It has been nearly a year since Karkare died with bullet injuries in his chest. The efficiency of that jacket was under question because Karkare received three fatal bullet injuries despite having worn the jacket.
His wife, Kavita Karkare, had filed an RTI asking for details of Hemant Karkare's bulletproof jacket, but the Maharashtra government has now told her that the jacket was misplaced in the chaos.
When Hemant Karkare was taken to the hospital after being shot, the doctors had removed the jacket from his body. It was misplaced in the chaos at J J Hospital according to government's reply.
A few months ago, the Maharashtra government was in the midst of a controversy over the quality of bulletproof jackets provided to the Mumbai Police.
While the Mumbai Police had then claimed that the file on the purchase of bulletproof jackets had gone missing, CNN-IBN had learnt that the file did exist and that it contained doubts on the quality of the jackets.
Sources within the Mumbai Police had told CNN-IBN that the file was not lost, but was being protected from public scrutiny to possibly avoid controversial details from coming out in the open.
Sources also said that in 2004, samples of the jackets were sent for a trial at the firing range of the State Reserve Police Force. They were fitted on dummies and sprayed with and bullets from self-loading rifles and AK-47s. Every single bullet went through the jackets even though the rounds were fired from a distance.
Opposition parties had created a chaos and even flashed a bulletproof jacket in the Maharashtra Assembly in a bid to target the state government. Allegations of large-scale corruption in the procurement of the bulletproof jackets were also hurled on all sides.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan had then denied the allegations saying, "I strongly deny of any corrupt practices being involved in the entire process of purchase, as alleged by the Opposition."
Meanwhile, there another twist to the tale after the reply which the Mumbai Police gave to an RTI applicant seeking information on bulletproof jackets used by Mumbai Police. The reply read: "Since the file relating to bulletproof jackets cannot be found, the queries cannot be answered."
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