BJP's Ujjwal Nikam denounces Vijay Wadettiwar's remarks on 26/11 attack

Ujjwal Nikam/ X

Ujjwal Nikam, a BJP candidate and former prosecutor in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, has questioned Congress politician Vijay Wadettiwar's recent comments about the incident. Wadettiwar, the Maharashtra Assembly's Leader of Opposition, stated that former Mumbai ATS chief Hemant Karkare was slain by a police official affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Nikam criticised Wadettiwar's allegations as "baseless" and compared them to "Goebbels' propaganda," alluding to Hitler's senior propagandist. He was outraged by Wadettiwar's charges, accusing him of demeaning Hemant Karkare's memory and casting doubt on the case's legal conclusions, reported ANI.

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"What allegations are you making? What will Pakistan say? Pakistan has never denied this. because we produced judicial proof. But our man is doing politics. You just want to do propaganda - that too Goebbels' propaganda. This doesn't defame Nikam. It defames you," Nikam told ANI on Monday.

According to the report, the BJP candidate chastised Wadettiwar for making such comments after his candidature was declared, pointing out that Kasab's confession and eyewitness testimony confirmed Karkare's death during the 26/11 attack. Nikam further underlined the disrespect paid to Karkare and other martyrs by challenging accepted facts.

"I am not bothered by Vijay Wadettiwar's allegations against me but the fact that Kasab and his colleague Abu Ismail killed Hemant Karkare was never disputed even by Pakistan but the leader of the opposition is questioning the whole case, it is not just an insult to the 166 people died but all our martyrs. I am sad that an Opposition leader who doesn't know the entire thing believes in a book and makes baseless statements. It means that you are insulting Hemant Karkare," Nikam further told the news agency.

"What is the judicial finding? Kasab confessed that when he and his friend were reaching outside Cama Hospital, they saw a police jeep and those two opened fire - that killed three police officers. They put their bodies at the back of the vehicle and left with the jeep. We examined it and found that it was not police personnel but a driver who was reversing his car. He was an eyewitness. We also have a statement from the man who was with (Hemant) Karkare and (Vijay) Salaskar in the vehicle. It was your rule at that time. You are making this statement after my candidature," he added.

In reaction to the backlash, Wadettiwar explained that he was citing from a book by SM Mushrif, a former Inspector General of Police in Maharashtra, and emphasised that the knowledge of Karkare's death was not his own, the ANI report stated.

"Those are not my words, I just said what was written in the book by SM Mushrif. Every information was there about the bullet by which Hemant Karkare was shot, it was not the bullet of terrorists," Wadettiwar said.

The Shiv Sena also slammed Wadettiwar's remarks, calling them disrespectful to the heroic police officers who died during the 26/11 terrorist attack in Mumbai.

Hemant Karkare, former chief of the Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad, was slain in the 2008 Mumbai attacks and was posthumously awarded the Ashoka Chakra in 2009.