Shahzad Ahmed, who was on Tuesday convicted by a city court for the murder of decorated Special Cell Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma in an encounter at L-18 Batla House on September 19, 2008, has also been accused by the Delhi Police of being party to a conspiracy to trigger serial explosions in the Capital six days prior to the bloody face-off.
The case, in which over two dozen suspected members of terror outfit Indian Mujahideen have also been named, is pending trial at another city court.
The police have accused Shahzad of planting a bomb in a dustbin at Children’s Park near India Gate on September 13, 2008.
The two suspected IM members killed in the Batla House encounter were identified as Atif Ameen and Mohammad Sajid. According to the police, Atif had planted a bomb in the M-Block Market of Greater Kailash along with an absconding accused Ariz Khan alias Junaid. The police suspect that Atif, along with Sajid and others, was also involved in the blasts in Faizabad, Varanasi and Lucknow besides explosions in Jaipur and Ahmedabad.
The police suspect that accused IM member Mohammad Shakeel, who has also been arrested, was involved in the 2008 Delhi blasts and serial explosions in Ahmedabad. Arrested accused persons Zia-Ur Rehman, Saquib Nisar, Zeeshan Ahmad, Mubin, Mansoor Asgar and Asif Bashir Sheikh, along with the others, were also suspected of being part of the same module.
The Delhi Police had earlier said the module smashed by the Special Cell was part of terror outfit Indian Mujahideen headed by Amir Raja Khan, who reportedly operated from Pakistan and communicated with the outfit members through e-mail. According to the police, Iqbal Bhatkal and his brother Riyaz Bhatkal are co-conspirators and the outfit has strong links with Lashkar-e-Taiba, headed by Abu Al-Qama.
Going by the police findings, Indian Mujahideen was floated through Amir Raja, the brother of Asif Raza who was killed by the Rajkot Police while allegedly trying to escape from their custody in December 2001. It is alleged that Amir Raja had first floated an outfit named Asif Raja Commando Force along with his underworld accomplices, including Aftab Ansari who had then targeted the American Center in Kolkata.
