The Mumbai police on Tuesday registered a First Information Report against unknown persons in the case of the missing bullet-proof jacket of former Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare.
The FIR was registered at the JJ Marg police station in south Mumbai, on an order passed by the Mazgaon metropolitan magistrate, following a complaint made by social activist Santosh Daundkar.
The magistrate had ordered the police to probe the whereabouts of the missing jacket and file an FIR.
"This is a very serious issue and the probe will unravel how and when the jacket went missing. We strongly suspect powerful and influential men are involved in the case," said Daundkar's lawyer Y P Singh.
Daundkar had filed a complaint in the Mazgaon court, alleging that Karkare was wearing the bullet-proof jacket when he was killed near Cama hospital during the terror strikes on Mumbai on November 26 last yeat.
His body was taken to JJ Hospital for a post-mortem and since then the bullet-proof jacket has been missing. Daundkar claimed that bullet-proof vest was a vital piece of evidence in the backdrop of allegations that it was defective and had therefore led to Karkare's death.
Earlier, Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil had ordered the Mumbai police's Crime Branch to probe the missing jacket case, after Karkare's wife Kavita brought the matter to his notice.
Kavita had learnt that the bullet-proof jacket was missing after filing a Right To Information plea about the matter.