Who pulled the trigger on Hemant Karkare?

Whose bullets killed the Maharashtra ATS chief and Inspector Vijay Salaskar, if they were not that of Kasab and Ismail? Was there some other sinister force out to eliminate Karkare and stop him at all costs? And how come Karkare's line of investigations has finally opened up the terrorist can of Hindutva outfits that triggered bomb blasts across the country? 

Hardnews Bureau Delhi

ML Tahaliyani is one old-fashioned judge. Refusing to get swayed by endless rants on hysterical news channels to hang all the accused in the 26/11 Mumbai terror atrocities, Tahaliyani not only confined himself to the evidence presented by the Mumbai Police during the trial of Ajmal Kasab, the lone survivor of the attack, but also revived the unsolved mystery of the killings of Hemant Karkare - and, also, ACP Ashok Kamte.

So who killed the Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) chief of Maharashtra, Hemant Karkare, on that bloody night of carnage unleashed by Pakistani terrorists in Mumbai, November26, 2008?

Indeed, two others accused of complicity and for being local handlers behind the Mumbai attacks were acquitted by the judge for lack of evidence against them. The evidence against Faheem Ansari and Sabahuddin Ahmed seemed planted - especially the maps found on them did not look 'soiled' despite their alleged overuse. 

The judge's queries and certain incomplete answers lead to a complex and uncanny zone of mysteries: Ballistic experts could not clarify the most crucial dimension of these killings: whose bullets killed Karkare and others? 

There is absence of authentic information. Why could no reliable police explanation be provided on whether Ansari handed over a map to Sabahuddin in Nepal?  

Why was the police unable to produce even one of their witnesses to depose against Faheem and Sabahuddin? 

How did a hand-drawn map on a paper remain unsoiled and unstained even though it was recovered from the bloodstained pocket of dead terrorist Abu Ismail, where it was supposed to have been for four days?

The outcome of Tahaliyani's informed scepticism has revived all the conspiracy theories about the motive behind the ATS chief's killing. Karkare, who exposed the involvement of Hindu terror organisations in the Malegaon blasts in 2008, was threatened with death via anonymous phone calls if he did not relent in his tireless efforts to unearth the vast network of Hindu terror cells that were involved in similar incidents of blasts and killings all over the country. Intriguingly, he had got a call two days before he was killed. Karkare had to be stopped - at all costs.

Many of Karkare's leads have now been decisively corroborated from investigations undertaken by police in different states. So if there is merit in what Karkare and his team ferreted out during the Malegaon blast probe and if he was not killed by the terrorist's bullet - then it is possible to surmise (or speculate) that there were others who took advantage of the chaos of that neurotic terror-filled night to stalk him and stop him in his heels.

Hardnews understands that these are extremely serious allegations that could give a different spin to 26/11, but there have been a series of unfortunate events like the disappearance of his bullet-proof jacket and the initial reluctance of the police to give his autopsy report that further deepens this mystery. The autopsy report suggests that Karkare was shot from shoulder down by someone who was inside the vehicle.  If it had not been for the perseverance of Karkare's wife, Kavita, and Kamte's wife, Vinita, who doggedly used every possible means to get to the bottom of the happenings on that night, far less would have been known. (Kamte was killed along with Karkare and Inspector Vijay Salaskar).