New Delhi, Aug 10: A TV news channel on Thursday evening aired a telephone conversation which it claimed was with India's most wanted Dawood Ibrahim, now holed up in Pakistan's Karachi, and its reporter.
The 19-minute conversation, the channel CNN-News 18 claimed, began with Dawood himself picking up the phone and asking the caller who he was when the reporter takes his name.
It said the intelligence agencies have verified and authenticated the voice in the conversation, which was taped on May 31 this year, to be that of Dawood.
"Who is this?" Dawood purportedly said when the caller asked whether he was the underworld don. Immediately, he gave the phone to another person, which the channel said was his close aide Javed Chotani, who carry on with the conversation.
The purported voice of Dawood was also heard from the background sometimes prompting Chotani.
The channel said they called on a Karachi number but the conversation showed that Dawood and his aide were trying to deny that they were using a Karachi number.
When the reporter asked whether they are in Karachi, Chotani asked who said so while Dawood is heard saying, "don't waste time". Chotani then purportedly said, according to the transcript released by the channel, "fear God. You are wasting time. Who are you talking to? Who are you interviewing? Do you know anything?"
It also claims that reports of Dawood being seriously ill was not true as Dawood himself saying that there was nothing but blood pressure shooting up. There were reports that he suffered heart attack and later it was said he was down with gangrene.
Officials in the Ministry of Home Affairs said the report reaffirms the government's assertion that Dawood is given safe haven in Pakistan.
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