Another example of the government’s right hand not knowing what the left is doing. Only this time around the mistake may prove to be very costly. Even though the Mumbai police’s ATS was quick to claim on Monday that it has managed to crack the 13/7 Mumbai serial blasts, it has now been revealed that the case is far from solved largely due to the turf war between Mumbai ATS, Intelligence Bureau and the Delhi police Special Cell.
Taking serious note of the lapses in the probe the Union home ministry will take up the issue during a meeting of state police chiefs soon where a better coordination mechanism will be thrashed out between Central and state agencies in sensitive cases.
Highly placed intelligence sources admitted that due to loss of crucial time and lack of coordination between the three agencies, the main mastermind of the case, Yasin Bhatkal, and the two bomb planters, Pakistani nationals Waqqas and Tabrez managed to escape. This despite there being strong leads pointing towards their possible hideout, a flat in Bycula.
The first leads emerged when the IB and Special Cell smashed the Darbhanga module of the Indian Mujahideen in November last year.
Investigations into the case revealed that Bhatkal was the mastermind behind the Mumbai serials blasts also and had been working in close association with not just men from Darbhanga, but some Pakistani national as well. It was also revealed that the actual planters, the two Pakistani nationals, may still be hiding in Mumbai.
Meanwhile, the Mumbai ATS too was conducting its own investigations into the case.
The Special Cell and IB too did not share this information with the Mumbai Police and instead dispatched their own sleuths to Mumbai. Sources said at least four teams of Special Cell were camping in Mumbai during November and December hunting for the suspects.
The Mumbai ATS interestingly suddenly picked up one the accused, Naqi Ahmed Sheikh, who, in fact, was helping both IB and the Special Cell in their operation.
“Naqi, in fact, was helping us with the probe. We would have booked him at a later stage and made him an approver. But the Mumbai ATS suddenly picked him up on flimsy grounds hampering our entire investigation,” a top intelligence official said.
Highly placed sources disclosed that a top IB official had to intervene in the turf war and talk to director-general, Maharashtra, seeking his intervention in the case on more than one occasion.
The Special Cell-IB officials are miffed with the ATS for arresting Naqi being fully aware that the other two agencies were also probing the case and that the investigations were at a very crucial stage.