Hacker wants CBI probe into Khadse-Dawood phone calls

Mumbai: Hacker Manish Bhangale filed a petition in the Bombay high court, demanding a CBI inquiry into the matter of Maharashtra minister Eknath Khadse’s number appearing in the frequent calling list of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s landline. The petition filed on Saturday also asks for security cover for the hacker, as he has received life threats.

Mr Bhangale, a self-styled hacker, claimed that he had hacked into the records of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) and accessed call records of the four landlines registered under the name of Mehjabeen Shaikh, wife of Dawood. These landlines are in Dawood’s house located in Clifton, Karachi, in Pakistan.

In his petition filed on Saturday, Mr Bhangale has asked the chief minister of Maharashtra to order a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the said matter. He alleged that various organisations were trying to manipulate the data.

Citing that superintendent of police, Jalgaon, Jalinder Supekar had obtained data from a mobile company giving a clean chit to revenue minister Mr Khadse, Mr Bhangale stated in his petition, “This whole exercise was overzealous as there was no statement records by me or no data obtained from me by the said superintendent of police before reaching out to the cell company for the revenue minister.”

The petition added that the call data records obtained by Mr Bhangale showed that Dawood had been in touch with many influential people in the country. To tackle this, he has asked the court to direct the CBI to investigate the numbers and the people he is allegedly in touch with.

“The CBI should be directed to constitute a special investigation team (SIT) and investigate the Dawood Ibrahim link which is wide spread in various countries. All the proof is in the data and if the interpol division of the CBI looks into it, it has the capacity to paralyse the don’s (Dawood) global empire. In addition to this, it will also expose his many contacts and moles in the Indian system,” Mr Bhangale said.

He further alleged that Mr Khadse was interfering in the investigation by using various means, including public statements. “The minister conducted a press conference in his chamber at Mantralaya and accessed a website (www.crazycall.net) which is banned in the country for national security reasons. He used this website to explain to the media how call hacking works. This type of reaction to the data that I have tendered gives out a wrong message to the society,” he stated further.

Mr Bhangale originally hails from Jalgaon in Maharashtra and is now settled in Mehsana in Gujarat. Mr Bhangale who calls himself an ‘ethical’ hacker said he had been receiving life threats. “My uncle and aunt and some other family members who are in Mehsana were threatened by certain persons belonging to an influential party. They had to move overnight, leave their house and occupation behind. Now they are in hiding, for no fault of theirs,” he said.

In his petition, Mr Bhangale has asked the court to direct authorities to provide him with security.

He has also alleged that attempts were being made in connivance with Pakistani authorities to destroy the said data. “There were nearly three to four attempts made to hack into the email id, I had used to access the data. This id was hacked into on Thursday night and two mails, though insignificant were deleted. I managed to recover these but this attempt clearly shows that they are scared,” he said.