Were Karkare’s orders flouted?

Were Karkare’s orders flouted?
Kartikeya TNN

Mumbai: Additional commissioner of police (east) Ashok Kamte was having dinner at a club in Chembur on the evening of November 26, 2008 when then police commissioner Hasan Gafoor ordered him to “get on the road’’, according to ‘To The Last Bullet’, the book penned by Kamte’s wife Vinita Kamte. By then, the 26/11 terror attack had already started and, as was his character, Kamte rushed into the thick of things, the book says.
Kamte, Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare and inspector Vijay Salaskar were killed by terrorists along with three other cops that night. As reported by TOI on Wednesday, Vinita, with the help of police call records obtained through RTI, has alleged in her book that the police officers lay injured for over 40 minutes in Rang Bhavan lane before help arrived. She has written that even after the officers were gunned down and their gunfight had been reported to police control by citizens and policemen, it was over 40 minutes before help reached them.
The book states that at 11.24 pm, Karkare had rightly assessed the situation at Cama Hospital and asked for reinforcements from various control rooms. Despite this clear message, for 1 hour and 15 minutes no policemen came to the support of Karkare and Kamte, the book notes.
The book also raises questions about the role of joint commissioner (crime) Rakesh Maria, who purportedly sent Kamte to Cama Hospital but later feigned ignorance about this. Vinita used RTI queries to get details of call logs between Kamte and various police control rooms to reach her conclusions.
Vinita says that an additional commissioner of police along with armed men stood barely 400 metres away from the scene of the action but did not proceed to give assistance. Instead, he chose to go in the opposite direction. She also reports that witnesses say a police vehicle actually zoomed past the Qualis in which the officers were shot and lying injured, but did not stop to help them.
Chief minister Ashok Chavan, deputy chief minister R R Patil, who was home minister at the time of the attacks, and director-general of police A N Roy refused to comment on the book.