No calls between Eknath Khadse and Dawood Ibrahim, affirms Mumbai Police

The Mumbai police today said that there were neither outgoing nor incoming calls from Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse's phone to that of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's number as claimed by Aam Aadmi Party leader Preeti Sharma Menon.

"Our initial analysis of the cell phone number (belonging to Khadse) indicated that there were neither outgoing nor incoming calls from this number to that of the fugitive (Dawood) during the entire period of September 2015 to April 2016, as stated in the (AAP) press conference," Mumbai Joint Commissioner of Police (crime) Atul Chandra Kulkarni said.

The AAP leader, in a press conference on Saturday, had alleged that the Maharashtra minister had received several calls from Dawood Ibrahim's wife Mehjabeen Shaikh's number 021-35871639 between 4 September 2015 and 5 April 2016.

Menon further claimed that the Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had asked the police to investigate the matter. Khadse has dismissed the allegations as "baseless" stating the particular number was not in use for the last one year.

Kulkarni said, "When the issue of contact of the Maharashtra government minister with Mumbai underworld fugitive Dawood Ibrahim, who is abroad, cropped up, we checked the details."

-PTI