Bhatkal arrest: ATS confused
Confusion prevailed among the ministers and the police even two days after arresting Abdul Samad Bhatkal, the prime suspect of the Pune blast. On Monday, the day he was arrested, state home minister R.R. Patil denied his involvement in the blast. Contradicting that on Tuesday, Union home minister P. Chidambaram congratulated the
police for arresting the prime suspect in the Pune blast case. The ATS, meanwhile, remained tight-lipped over his role. Sources pointed out that this was a deliberate move as the ATS did not want to exhaust his custody by charging him with the blast. Instead, they have chosen to book him in an arms case to get more time with him. This will in turn give the police more time to file the chargesheet against him.
“A maximum of 14 days custody can be availed in a case. Senior ATS officers want to get through to the entire module and might need his custody for a longer period. Presently they have sought his custody in an arms case in which he is believed to have supplied arms to underworld don Chhota Shakeel’s men,” said the source.
According to the officer, the ATS is likely to book him in the blast case at the right time when they arrest at least a few other members of the module.
However, this has embarrassed at least the two home ministers that the ATS reports to.
Meanwhile, the ATS is probing the possible nexus between the underworld and terror outfit IM in the blast case. “In the firearms case, it is clearly established that Bhatkal had underworld links since he had supplied arms to three of Chhota Shakeel’s men. Now the question before us is whether the underworld has any links in the Pune blast,” an officer said.
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Uncle: He was falsely implicated
Dippy Vankani
Mumbai
May 26: Family members of the Abdul Samad Bhatkal, the prime suspect in the German Bakery blast in Pune, on Wednesday claimed that Bhatkal has been falsely implicated. They alleged that he had been arrested by the Anti-Terrorism Squad even though the police had actually been on the trail of his cousin brother Yasin.
Speaking from Mangalore, Bhatkal’s uncle Mohammed Yaqub Siddibapa told this newspaper that his nephew had gone to Dubai on a visitor’s visa in search of a job. Mr Siddibapa said that Bhatkal had fully cooperated with the police before leaving for Dubai.
“All the charges levelled against him are absolutely baseless, and there is not an grain of truth in them. Abdul had completed a computer course in Mangalore, and afterward, had gone to Dubai three months ago on a visitor’s visa looking for a good job. He was there with some other members of our family. We are all shocked at his arrest,” said Mr Siddibapa.
Abdul Samad’s mother, Rehana Bibi, has claimed that the police is trying to trap her son on false grounds. She said that police has been hell-bent on tarnishing their name.
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