A key witness in the 26/11 trial and sweeper of the government J.J. Hospital, who claimed that he had long ago disposed of the bulletproof jacket of the slain Maharashtra ATS chief, Hemant Karkare, on Friday said he had no idea of what happened to the gear.
Dinesh Gataar said he had kept the blood-stained jacket in a bag and placed it in a ward. He had his weekly off the next day and when he reported for duty, the entire ward was clean and no waste was there. On Wednesday, Mr. Gataar told a magistrate that he had stuffed the jacket in a bag and sent it to the dumping ground at Deonar for disposal.
His statement was recorded by the magistrate on a complaint filed by social activist Santosh Daundkar praying for a probe into the issue of missing jacket.
The magistrate earlier ordered the J.J. Marg police to register an FIR to probe the missing jacket. A year after the incident, Mr. Gataar broke his silence and said he had disposed of the jacket.
But now the change in his stand has created a flutter with the police saying they will now probe who discarded the vest.
