New Delhi: The previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government discussed an offer for underworld don and one of India's most wanted terrorists Dawood Ibrahim's return two years ago, said report.
According to a report in the Indian Express, the then prime minister Manmohan Singh and former National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon discussed the Dawood offer in 2013. But some senior members of the Congress felt the prospect of conducting a trial on Dawood's terms was too risky.
But denying reports on Dawood, former home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said, "When I was the Home Minister, we had no information from any source or any agency regarding Dawood."
Former Mumbai police commissioner Satyapal Singh also denied reports. "I am not at all aware of this kind of an offer. I do not believe the authenticity of this report because neither Dawood would like to return to India and remain in jail throughout his life nor the ISI would let him come to India. During my tenure, whatever information I have about the Dawood, there was no such offer. But it could have happened as after the serial blasts in Mumbai, there might be some attempt being made that Dawood returns to India," said Singh.
The report quoted former officials saying that the "offer" was first conveyed to the Congress leadership and was later taken up for discussion in the Prime Minister's Office.
The report added that the sequence of events and circumstances leading to the "offer" revealed that Dawood was suffering from a serious kidney ailment and wanted to return to India to be with the rest of his family.
Earlier, senior Advocate Ram Jethmalani had hit out at the political leadership for not accepting Dawood's offer to return after 1993 Mumbai serial blasts. Jethmalani had said that the leaders did not act out of fear of being exposed.
The CBI had alleged that Dawood Ibrahim conspired with ISI to carry out serial blasts in Mumbai in March 1993 in which 257 people were killed and property worth Rs 32 crore damaged.
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