Mumbai blasts: ATS to question suspected IM members
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Widening its probe into Wednesday's serial bombings, Maharashtra's Anti-Terrorist Squad is likely to question suspected Indian Mujahideen members lodged in Karnataka and Gujarat jails and has sought the assistance of Kolkata Police in tracking possible suspects.
"A police team from Karnataka has come to Mumbai to help us. An ATS team from Maharashtra will also go to Karnataka and Ahmedabad to question the IM members lodged in the jails there," said a police official.
The ATS is likely to grill suspected IM member Danish Riyaz in Ahmedabad who had been arrested there in connection with the 2008 serial blasts in Gujarat.
In Karnataka, police will also question those who are believed to have an association with family members of Riyaz and Iqbal Bhatkal, the founder members of Indian Mujahideen.
The ATS has also sought assistance from Kolkata Police asking them to verify if any suspects had travelled to Mumbai from that city and subsequently went underground after the blasts, as part of its probe into the triple bombings in Zaveri Bazar, Opera House and Dadar that left 19 people dead and injured over 130.
The ATS has questioned the owner of a bike, which was found very close to the blast site in Zaveri Bazar here, to put together the sequence of events on July 13.
The maroon colour Honda Activa bearing number MH-01-AS 718 was one of the bikes which was very close to the blast site and was partially destroyed in the bombings.
The bike belongs to one Ashok Jain who lives in Nagpada area.
Ashok's nephew Aniket Jain, whose father owns a jewellery shop in Zaveri Bazar, said his uncle had parked the bike close to the blast site at around 3 pm on Wednesday while the blasts occurred at around 6:55 pm.
"ATS had called Ashok to its office at Nagpada yesterday with all the papers pertaining to the bike," said Aniket.
The insurance of the bike had expired two months ago. "We did not even realise that the insurance has expired," he said.
The front portion of the bike was completely destroyed in the blasts and the vehicle is presently in the custody of the police. Police suspect that the blasts were triggered with the use of a IED kept in an abandoned umbrella, on one of the bikes there.
Meanwhile, one of the victims of the blasts today died in a city hospital, taking the death toll in the bombings to 19 Babulal Das, 42, who was admitted to Saifee Hospital after the blast at Opera House, died around 3 am, they said.
Twenty people, who were seriously injured in the bombings, are being treated at various hospitals in the city.
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