The Ministry of Home Affairs told the Lok Sabha during question hour on Tuesday that the government was unaware of the location of the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts accused Dawood Ibrahim and therefore could not start the process for his extradition.
The reply contradicts the Centre’s stated position that the fugitive is in Pakistan. Sources told The Hindu that the reply was framed “in the limited context of extradition.”
The response, described by a senior official as a ‘goof-up’, put the government on the back foot, forcing it to clarify late in the evening that India’s stance had not changed.
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Sources said the government had exchanged dossiers with Pakistan on the don’s “three known addresses and details of his Pakistani passports.”
No change in stance on Dawood
Responding to questions on the change in the government’s stance on the whereabouts of Dawood Ibrahim, Kiren Rijiju, Minister of State for Home on Tuesday said: “[The] government’s stand is consistent: he’s in Pakistan.”
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Earlier in Parliament, MoS Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary said in a written reply to a question of Dawood’s extradition by Nityanand Rai that “Dawood Ibrahim is an accused in the Mumbai serial blast of 1993 and a Red Corner Notice No. A0135/4-1993 is in existence against him.”