Blast near Red Fort, Ricin ‘terror plot’: Vadodara police track down over 60% people booked for anti-national activities since 1995

The Vadodara City Police are in the process of verifying the whereabouts of about 200 other accused, who are located outside the city and Gujarat.

The  dossier maintained by the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) has more than 20,000 people connected with “anti-national activities” across 34 districts of the state, which was prepared following an order issued by the DGP on August 23, 2024. This dossier is being updated following the DGP’s latest order.

The Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Vadodara city police said it has successfully verified the whereabouts of 400 of the 600 accused in the dossier, who have previously been booked in cases under Arms Act, NDPS, Counterfeit currency cases as well as the Petroleum Act.

Police Inspector S D Ratada of the Vadodara city SOG said that as per the instructions, a list of the accused involved in potential or direct ‘anti-national’ activities was drawn up and their dossier was prepared to identify their families, acquaintances, properties and contacts. Of the 400 persons tracked so far, the city police learnt that 40 accused had passed away while over 30 are currently in jail.

“In the Vadodara city jurisdiction, we do not have persons booked under MCOCA, TADA, UAPA or Explosives Acts so our list was drawn up to track accused under NDPS Act, counterfeit currency cases, Arms Act and Petroleum Act. Owing to the location of refineries, there have been some cases under the Petroleum Act too. The entire focus is on verifying what the accused have been up to; if they are outside prison, their contacts and recent movements and routines are under the watch…”, said inspector Ratada.

Ratada said that teams of SOG and Detection of Crime Branch of Vadodara city are being formed to trace the 200 remaining accused, who are located outside the city and state.

“In some cases, the accused are located outside the state… We have designated each police station the task to ascertain the whereabouts of these (200) persons, under their respective areas… Once we have their recent locations known, the teams will be sent to conduct a physical verification.”

A senior police official of Gujarat police said that a small percentage of accused across the state had been found to be residing at their addresses recorded in the police files. “This verification is a precautionary measure and also to update the records. Several of these accused are residing at different addresses either within Gujarat or even outside the state… Multiple teams from respective cities and district police will be dispatched for verification once we get the details of the accused,” the official said.

The official added that the Gujarat police will contact their counterparts in other states to verify and track some of the accused, as needed.

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