Mumbai: In order to blow the lid of the alleged sinister plan of carrying out terror attacks at multiple locations in the state, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) are scanning the call detail records (CDR) of the arrested accused to identify who all were part of the conspiracy.
The investigators said that they are yet to ascertain who all were in the loop of the plan and what roles had they been given. The investigators said that the SIM cards being used by the main accused Vaibhav Raut, (40) a gau rakshak (cow protector) were registered in the name of another person. There are also several numbers with which calls had been exchanged. The identities of these persons are being verified.
“The SIMs used by the accused have identity layers. After the numbers came under scanner, the owners were tracked down, however, it came to the fore that the SIMs had changed several hands before being used by the arrested accused persons,” said an ATS officer.
The forensic analysis will also help find if Raut and other accused persons were in touch with each other via any encrypted internet-based messenger. The officials said that citing the close coordination required for planning and executing something sinister like this, the arrested accused and their foot soldiers would have been in close contact via safe means of communication.
Preliminary investigation has revealed that the terror ring had plans of carrying out crude bombs attacks in Satara, Pune, Solapur and Nalasopara. They are now being interrogated on the identities of accomplices and their roles.
Vaibhav Raut
The ATS officials raided two places including the residence and a shop of Raut on Friday and seized 20 crude bombs including several circuits, detonators and other material that was used to assemble the explosives.
Those arrested are members of right-wing Hindu outfit and seized eight crude bombs and suspicious white powder (suspected to be gunpowder). A team of ATS’s Nagpada unit raided Raut’s residence at Bhandar Aali in Sopara village at Nalasopara.
Raut, a member of the ‘Hindu Govansh Raksha Samiti’, was apprehended after the officials found eight crude bombs at his residence. Search of a shop establishment nearby led to the recovery of 12 more bombs, officials said.
The ATS is verifying the links of the accused with Narendra Dabholkar-Govind Pansare murders and Gauri Lankesh killing in Bangalore. Among other incidents, the 2008 low intensity blasts that pointed to Hindu outfits will also be looked into for their involvement.
