ATS to probe 2-year-old lead in Pune blast case

Mumbai: Two years after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) filed its chargesheet in the February 2013 serial blasts in Hyderabad, in which it revealed that Indian Mujahideen (IM) logistics provider Ajaz Shaikh was the one who provided explosives to then IM operations chief Yasin Bhatkal for the 2010 German bakery blast in Pune, a senior Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) officer confirmed to The Asian Age that it will “verify” the lead on Shaikh as it could unravel the entire conspiracy. Counter-terror sources said it was being ascertained whether there was a communication gap between the two agencies, if the lead on Shaikh alias Samar Armaan Tunde had not been pursued.      

The NIA source said, “The NIA probe against Ajaz Shaikh revealed that he had handed over the explosives to Yasin Bhatkal at Swargate in Pune, after having received them from an unidentified courier near the city’s railway station in February 2013.”

He said, “The courier had been sent by Shaikh’s relative Mohsin Chaudhary and IM’s absconding chief Riyaz Bhatkal.” Chaudhary and Riyaz are absconding accused in the bakery blast case and had allegedly fled to Pakistan in 2008 amid a crackdown on the IM’s rank-and-file.

The crackdown was a result of IM orchestrated serial blasts in Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Delhi and Bangalore.  

A special court in Hyderabad had in December 2016 convicted Shaikh and four other IM accused, including Bhatkal, awarding them death penalties for their role in the Hyderabad blasts. The NIA submitted its chargesheet against Shaikh in June 2015 after taking his custody from Delhi police’s Special Cell, which arrested Shaikh from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh in September 2014, said an NIA source. Bhatkal was arrested by NIA from around the Indo-Nepal international border in August 2013. Shaikh had done a diploma course in computer hardware from a private institute in Hyderabad, said the source.

The ATS officer said, “In a terror probe, not all facts get disclosed at the same time or by one agency alone, and any important lead that emerges will get examined, verified.” The ATS had earlier submitted a chargesheet against Himayat Baig in December 2010. Baig had been sentenced to death by a special court but he was later acquitted of all terror charges in the case by the Bombay high court in March 2016. The court had confirmed his life imprisonment for possession of explosives.

According to the NIA source, it was Chowdhury, Shaikh’s relative, who had lured the latter into IM’s in 2009 after Riyaz approved of his choice. Shaikh, under the direction of Riyaz, allegedly worked as a logistics provider to IM operatives ferrying explosives and fabricating fake identity particulars for use in accessing rental houses, wire money and mobile phones. Shaikh allegedly helped Bhatkal in finding accommodation and acquiring a cell phone in February 2010.  Shaikh did not directly participate in any attack, said the source.