Jul 19 (Mumbai Mirror): The state Anti-Terrorism Squad on Monday told the Bombay High Court that it found no exchange of calls between former state minister Eknath Khadse and don Dawood Ibrahim in a preliminary inquiry.

"No terrorist angle has been found as alleged by the hacker. No calls were exchanged between Khadse and Dawood," ATS advocate Niteen Pradhan told a division bench of Justices NH Patil and PD Naik.

Khadse, a BJP veteran from North Maharashtra who resigned last month in the wake of a string of allegations, dubbed it as a "clean chit" to him and "vindication of his innocence".

The HC was hearing a petition filed by Gujarat-based hacker Manish Bhangale, alleging partial probe by the state machinery and seeking CBI investigation in the matter.

"The claims made by the petitioner that the information provided by him to the state machinery has been taken lightly is not correct. We are doing the needful and a CBI probe is not required," Pradhan said.

However, Pradhan said "other revelations have come to the fore" during investigation. Meanwhile, Khadse said that the ATS "clean chit" has revealed "the truth". "Nobody believed me when I kept on saying that I had no relation with Dawood. As ATS has given me a clean chit, people have now realised what is truth and what is false," Khadse said.