Retired Mumbai Police commissioner Rakesh Maria has approached the Bombay High Court seeking to be impleaded as a respondent in a petition filed by the Maharashtra government against a State Information Commission (SIC) order to investigate him in connection with alleged discrepancies in the 26/11 call records.
A Division Bench headed by Justice A.A. Sayyed on Wednesday directed the SIC to file an affidavit in response to Mr. Maria’s plea, and posted the application for hearing after two weeks.
In his application, Mr. Maria said as he was no longer a government official, he would like to be impleaded as a respondent in the government’s petition so that he could be represented by an advocate to put forth his arguments. The State government had approached the HC challenging a July 2014 order of the then Chief Information Commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad directing the government to initiate an inquiry, headed by a sitting or a retired judge, under the Commission of Inquiry Act against Mr. Maria.
The commissioner had ordered that the enquiry be carried out to know why “misleading information was provided to Vinita Kamte”, wife of additional commissioner of police Ashok Kamte who was killed in the 26/11 terror attacks.
Ms. Kamte had sought call data records of the police control room on the night of November 26, 2008.
