The alleged main conspirator of the 2002 Ghatkopar blast, who was working as a software engineer, has been arrested in Hyderabad, police said on Friday.
The accused, Siddique Taj-ul Islam Kazi, working in a software company in Hyderabad on a fake name, Siddiqui Taj Quazi, was nabbed on Wednesday and brought to Mumbai on Thursday before he was placed under arrest, a crime branch officer said. “Kazi, a banned SIMI activist, is originally from Aurangabad. Soon after the blast, he went into hiding. He had been staying in Hyderabad for nearly 10 years,” the official added.
He was earning a salary of Rs. 70,000 per month. He was staying in Hyderabad with his wife and five children.
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Two persons were killed and over 50 injured when a bomb went off in a BEST bus at Ghatkopar in Mumbai in December 2002.
The verdict, given in June 2005, left the Maharashtra Police red-faced when all eight accused were acquitted by a special POTA court of all the charges due to lack of evidence.