Former Central Bureau of Investigation Director (CBI) K. Vijayarama Rao has denied the claim of his former understudy in the premier investigation agency, Neeraj Kumar, that he went cold on the offer made by the underworld don Dawood Ibrahim for surrender as he did not get a go ahead from his bosses.
He was responding to comments made by Mr. Kumar in an interview to an English daily that Dawood, feigning innocent on his role in the 93 Mumbai blasts, had approached him over the phone with an offer to surrender. He has claimed that initially he was asked to continue his telephone conversations with the don. However, he stopped entertaining Dawood’s calls after his bosses in the CBI asked him to stop. Speaking to The Hindu , Mr. Rao said he had not received any such proposal from Mr. Kumar that Dawood wanted to surrender. “There were two other senior officers above Mr. Kumar and, maybe, he is referring to them but he did not make any proposal to me as Director”, he said. Asserting that the agency would have immediately grabbed the chance if Dawood wanted to surrender, Mr. Rao asked why anyone would let go such an opportunity when all the security agencies of the country were in hot pursuit of the dreaded criminal against whom there was unassailable evidence of triggering 13 blasts that rocked Mumbai on March 12, 1993, killing 257 persons. It was not only the police, CBI and Intelligence Bureau but the Ministries of External Affairs and Home that were fully involved in trying to get back Dawood to the country.
Mr. Rao recalled that a number of people who fled to Dubai after the bomb blasts in Mumbai were encouraged to surrender on offers from them in the course of investigation. The CBI helped them to return to Delhi and give themselves up. Some of them were also arrested and produced in court. It was all done secretly because the CBI feared they might be killed by rivals if the information was leaked out. The media was informed after their arrest.
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