Dawood's surrender offer was conditional, so we rejected it: Sharad Pawar

MUMBAI: Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar has confirmed senior lawyer Ram Jethmalani’s claim that when the former was Maharashtra Chief Minister in the 1990s, his government had turned down an offer by underworld don Dawood Ibrahim to surrender to Indian authorities.
However, Mr Pawar pointed out his government refused the offer because it laid down a condition that the fugitive gangster would not be arrested on his return.“It’s true that Mr Jethmalani had given such a proposal. But there was a condition that Dawood Ibrahim should not be arrested by the police when he reaches Mumbai. That he should be allowed to stay in his house. This was not acceptable to us,” Mr Pawar told the media on Saturday.
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“To demand that a man who had committed so many crimes not be arrested, how can that be acceptable? We all have to face the law and so should he,” Mr Pawar added.
In an interview to The Times of India on Friday, Mr Jethmalani had revealed that both Dawood Ibrahim and his trusted aide Chhota Shakeel had offered to surrender to Indian authorities in the 1990s. He said that Shakeel had contacted him with the offer when he was in London. Mr Jethmalani said that he had conveyed this to the then Maharashtra Chief Minister Sharad Pawar but the offer was turned down.
“I had in writing given details of the offer to then CM Pawar. The state government kept quiet …then said it could not guarantee the relaxation sought by Shakeel. The matter ended there. Chhota Shakeel never contacted me again,” Mr Jethmalani said.
In a separate interview to TOI, Shakeel said both he and Dawood had offered to surrender to Indian authorities via Mr Jethmalani but Advani came in the way. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh refused to be drawn into the controversy. “Just because someone has said something, it doesn’t mean we have to respond. The Indian government is doing what it has to,” Mr Singh said.
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Read this in Hindi: पवार ने बताया, आखिर क्यों नहीं आने दिया दाऊद को