Ishrat Jahan: Javed’s ‘doubtful’ credentials under SIT scanner

The SIT officials said that after converting to Islam,Javed had made a passport based on his new name Javed Sheikh in 1992-93. However,he had got another passport in his old name Pranesh Pillai two years before his encounter. The copies of the both the passports are with the SIT.

The SIT officials said Javed’s conversion to Islam raises doubts because his parents said they are unaware if he actually practised it. They had told the SIT that back home in Kerela,Javed was not found practising it by way of offering prayers or going to the mosque,for instance.

The SIT officers said Javed,after moving to Pune,often went to Oman in connection with his perfume business. Apparently,on one of these visits,he met alleged Pakistani terrorist Amjad Ali Rana. The officials added that Javed’s phone had three text messages from a six digit mobile number of Pakistan starting with code 3 from Rana’s phone.

His passport carrying Javed name shows his frequent visits to Oman,claiming to be for perfume business. The SIT added that neither they got any proof of his perfume business in Pune nor does the Pune Police have it in their records that he had a perfume shop in Pune.

Moreover,according to police records,Javed was booked five times in cases of assault and hurt in Pune and Mumbai. The SIT also stumbled upon the evidence that shows that he was also running a fake currency racket in Pune with the help of alleged currency racketeers in Mumbai.

The officials added that although Javed ran a travel agency in Pune where he recruited Ishrat,she probably knew about his activities. He knew Ishrat through a common friend in Mumbra who told him that Ishrat was not earning enough from tuitions.

Javed had taken Ishrat to Nasik,Bangalore and also Lucknow where he is believed to have met Rana. The SIT reportedly had records of the lodges both Ishrat and Javed stayed in at these spots,sources added.

A senior SIT officer said,“We are not arriving at a conclusion that Javed was notorious or he had terrorist links but these cases and incidents revolving around him raise doubts on his activities. The reason of making a passport on his old name after conversion doesn’t indicate a noble purpose. Moreover,it is illegal”.

The SIT is however probing further into the nexus Javed is suspected to have with the alleged Pakistani terrorists.