Dawood’s Offer To Return India Was Turned Down As It Was Conditional And Not Viable :Sharad Pawar

04 July ,New Delhi

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Chief and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Sharad Pawar has admitted that Senior Lawyer Ram Jethmalani approached him over Dawood but said that proposition regarding the surrender of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim was not viable as a criminal like him could not be left without being arrested.

Pawar on Saturday said Jethmalani had given a proposition but it was conditional. The Condition was that after Dawood comes to Mumbai, he won’t be arrested but permitted to stay at home.

Pawar also questioned that how could we accept that for a man who had so many cases against him cannot be arrested? Since Law had to take its course so the proposition was not considered.

According to a report in a leading English news paper, Senior Lawyer Ram Jethmalani has claimed that Underworld don Dawood Ibrahim had offered to surrender to the Indian authorities after Mumbai blasts in 1993, but Sharad Pawar the then Chief Minister of Maharashtra did not carry the matter forward.

Jethmalani has also said that Dawood claimed that he was not involved in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts.

He said Dawood was ready to return to India and face trial in cases against him but he wanted a guarantee from the Indian authorities that he will not be subjected to third degree torture by the police if he is put behind bars and he also wanted the Indian authorities to keep him only under house arrest.

According to Jethmalani, Dawood has said that he was ready to face the punishment if he was wrong.

Jethmalani further claimed that when Dawood had said this, the senior lawyer had sent the details to Sharad Pawar in writing.