Police today denied that a call was made from BJP leader Haren Pandya’s mobile phone to the control room while the former Gujarat home minister was struggling for life in his car after being shot at by unidentified assailants on March 26.Denying reports that the two calls were made to the control room at 8.50 am and that the caller was asked to contact Ellisbridge police station, police said in a release that details of the calls acquired from the service provider do not contain record of any call made to the control room.Claiming the reports as ‘‘baseless and far from truth’’, the release said that the time of death was reported as 7.40 am in the investigation report and the police was informed about the incident only at 10.45 am.Union Minister of State for Home Harin Pathak also gave a clean chit to the Gujarat government. ‘‘I don’t agree that there was any security lapse. Whatever reports Central intelligence agencies had was shared with the state government, which in turn provided security to the probable targets,’’ Pathak told mediapersons in Vadodara today.According to him, Pandya was never thought of as a possible target of terrorists and hence, was not given any security cover. ‘‘Harenbhai had such an amiable personality that no personal rivalry could be behind the gruesome killing,’’ he added.
