Key Ahmedabad blasts case accused held in Kerala

The Ahmedabad police have arrested Shoaib Pottanikal, a key accused in the 2008 serial blasts case, from Kozhikode in Kerala.

A police team, involving officials from the Ahmedabad Crime Branch, Kerala Police and Intelligence arrested the accused after he landed at the Kozhikode airport on an international flight.

Shoaib is one of the 18 absconding accused in the blasts in which 56 people were killed in the city. “He had escaped overseas after the blasts, following which a Red Corner notice was also issued against him,” Ahmedabad Crime Branch joint commissioner of police J.K. Bhatt said on Wednesday.

Shoaib knew Sainuddin and Sarfuddin, the two persons held for allegedly providing electronic chips used in bombs for the 2008 blasts, and helped the operatives of Indian Mujahideen and SIMI get in touch with them, Mr. Bhatt said. Yasin Bhatkal, one of the main accused in the case, had also told the Crime Branch sleuths about Shoaib’s role after he was brought here on a transfer warrant from Tihar jail on March 31 this year. Shoaib (49) hails from a well-to-do family in Malappuram.