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No action against Govinda without inquiry: Police

     Mumbai: Mumbai Police Commissioner AN Roy has said that no action can be taken against Bollywood actor Govinda over his alleged nexus with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim unless a formal inquiry is ordered into the incident. Commenting on the alleged nexus, Roy said he has not seen the tape as yet. He further said that necessary actions will be taken only if some connection was found after analysing the contents of the tape. "I have asked for the CD. After seeing it, if something is found then we will take necessary action," said Roy. On Thursday, Govinda categorically denied having links with Dawood Ibrahim, terming a local television channel's video clip featuring him and Ibrahim as a malicious attempt to malign his reputation. A private channel on Tuesday ran video clippings of the tape where Govinda, then an upcoming actor, during the inauguration of a shop was seen meeting Ibrahim and his other associates.

    Govinda termed all this as a plot to malign his image as the tape dates back to 1989. "This will not be a blot on my image. The things which happened in 1989 and 1986 they have been cleared. Government never moves ahead without clarifications. At that time, 20 photographs were printed in the newspaper in which one was mine. It's just a plan, they slowly want to create a case against me so that I am unable to continue my political and film career," he told reporters in Mumbai. The actor, who got elected to Parliament, from the north Mumbai constituency last year, said that he had already been cleared of any involvement with Ibrahim by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Claiming that he had been a victim of underworld pressure himself, Govinda said he had performed in Dubai under pressure and had been cleared by the CBI, CID and police way back in 1989. "A chance meeting does not mean having links (with Dawood). I am disturbed myself...An artist is just picked up and taken to perform for someone under pressure and then one is not even given money," an anguished Govinda said reacting to the footage telecast by a private television channel last night. "What was more baffling was that there were upto 25 artists who had been taken to Dubai. What is baffling is why only my footage. Why not of others. Instead of sympathising with me, I am being framed," the actor added. The U.S. Treasury had in 2003 put Ibrahim on its global terrorist list linking him to al Qaeda, in a move seen as backing India's claim that he was hiding in Pakistan, listed his address as Karachi and he was holding a Pakistani passport. India has been accusing Ibrahim, the son of a police constable, of masterminding a 1993 day-long wave of bombings in Mumbai that killed 260 people and injured 1,000.