Following the arrest of a suspected Harkat- ul-Jihad- al-Aslami (HuJI) operative in Kishanganj district, the Bihar police on Monday filed FIRs against the suspect Mohd. Riyazul Sarkar, and Mahtab Alam, the person who sheltered him.
The Bihar police have detained Sarkar for illegal residence under the Indian Foreigners Act,1946, and held him for questioning.
However, Bihar Director General of Police Mr. Neelmani stressed that there was no evidence so far as to link Sarkar with last Wednesday's serial blasts in Mumbai or any organization of an adverse nature.
In the wake of the heightened security after the Mumbai serial blasts, Bihar police on Sunday had picked up the suspect from the sensitive Kishanganj border area following mysterious reports about him.
According to police sources, Sarkar, reportedly a native of North Dinajpur in West Bengal, had been living with with Mahtab Alam for a week under suspicious circumstances and was said to be fluent in Kannada, Gujarati and Bengali.
Multiple SIM cards, three cell phones and diaries with jottings in Marathi were recovered from Sarkar, said Kishanganj Superintendent of Police Ranjit Mishra.
It was this coupled with Sarkar's strange peregrinatory habits that led to a suspicion of a link with the Mumbai blasts.
The police are also working on conflicting accounts provided by Sarkar about present life.
“We are working on the available evidence as Sarkar has given conflicting accounts of his stay in various places. As of now he has been forwarded to judicial custody, we will be remanding him to police custody soon,” Mr. Mishra told The Hindu,reiterating the lack of evidence as yet to link him with HuJI or any such extremist group.
