Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar admitted on Saturday that Ram Jethmalani had approached him in the 1990s with a proposal for Dawood Ibrahim’s surrender, but he had rejected it as the terms set by the don were not reasonable.“Yes. It is true that Mr. Jethmalani had conveyed to me >Dawood’s willingness to surrender. But the don had set a condition that he should not be arrested. He wanted to stay in his house. We said a man who has committed serious offences must face the law,” Mr. Pawar told presspersons in Mumbai.

He was reacting to Mr. Jethmalani’s statement that he had met Dawood in London where the don made the offer, but the Pawar-led Maharashtra government rejected it.

‘Rejection of Dawood’s offer was a collective decision’

Mr. Jethmalani’s startling revelations on underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s offer to surrender came in response to a news report which quoted Dawood’s close aide Chhota Shakeel as saying that the Indian government had rejected don’s proposal after the 1993 serial bombings in Mumbai.

“When we wanted to come back after 1993, you people, your government didn't allow. Bhai had himself spoken that time to Ram Jethmalani, that too in London ... baat ho gayi thi... But your ministry... that Advani played the game,” the news report quoted Shakeel as saying.

Mr. Jethmalani said rejection of Dawood’s proposal was not just Sharad Pawar’s decision, but also of the UPA government. He said Dawood claimed that he had been falsely implicated in the serial bombings case, and offered to surrender only if the authorities gave an assurance that the police would not use third degree methods if he was jailed.

Indian intelligence reports have consistently claimed that Dawood was in Karachi’s Clifton area.