A fourth suspected member of the Indian Mujahideen module, allegedly behind the Pune serial blasts in August, has been arrested by the Delhi Police Special Cell in Jaipur. The accused earlier worked as a computer-aided design engineer.
The Special Cell had previously arrested Asad Khan (23), Imran Khan (31) and Sayed Feroz (38), all residents of Maharashtra, and claimed to have seized from them explosives, detonators and other components used for assembling improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The police alleged that the three were part of the module involved in the Pune blasts on August 1.
During interrogation, they purportedly identified another member as Landge Irfan Mustafa (30), a resident of Ahmednagar in Maharashtra. The accused also revealed that some other members of the outfit were now in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
“On a tip-off that he would go to Jaipur on October 10, a team traced him to a bus stand there and arrested him. He disclosed that in July, Indian Mujahideen founder Riyaz Bhatkal instructed him to arrange accommodation in Pune. Accordingly, he, along with Feroz, rented a house in Kasarwadi without submitting any identification proof,” said sources.
According to the police, the accused received two people, one of whom he had met last November in Pune, and took them to the rented house. The next day, the duo handed him over a list of electronics items for making IEDs, which they purchased from Pune. He was also involved in configuring the bombs, they said, adding that Riyaz used to send him money through the hawala channel. As instructed by Riyaz, he had also allegedly bought two pistols for Imran.
“In July 2007, the younger sister of the accused married Asad Khan, a resident of Aurangabad. During a visit to Asad’s house, Irfan introduced him to Imran. Accused Feroz came in contact with Irfan through a common friend named Sameer,” said a police officer, adding that Irfan had worked with a company as a design engineer in 2008-09. In 2011, he along with Asad and Imran started a real estate business in Aurangabad.
The police claimed that Asad met alleged Laskhar-e-Taiba militant Fayyaz Qagzi during a trip to Saudi Arabia in September 2007. Imran met the LeT suspect the next year. The two were allegedly in touch with Qagzi through email. “Irfan went to Saudi Arabia for the first time in January 2009 and met Qagzi the next year.”
The police have obtained the custody of Irfan till October 30 and got the remand of the other three suspects extended by 10 days.
