AS PART of its probe into the alleged Ricin terror plot, the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) conducted searches at the residence of the arrested Hyderabad doctor on Tuesday and Wednesday, said officers. Sources said Cyberabad police personnel observed from a distance as the ATS team seized unidentified chemicals and raw material in cartons from Dr Ahmed Mohiuddin Saiyed’s flat in Rajendranagar.
A team from the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) searched the home – that was also a ‘workshop’ – of 35-year-old Saiyed, main accused in an alleged bio-terror plot using the deadly chemical agent, Ricin. The team found “substances and material” that will be sent to the
Forensic Science Laboratory for tests.
Sources told The Indian Express that primarily it appeared, on the basis of interrogation of the accused, that he had not yet successfully isolated the toxin from Castor beans (Ricinus communis) before his arrest in Gujarat and neither had he decided what delivery mechanism to use in the purported bio-terror attack that the ATS said it had foiled.
However, investigators in Gujarat are looking closely at the 2018 Ricin bomb plot in Cologne, Germany, where a radicalised couple had allegedly successfully isolated Ricin. However, they were apprehended before any attempt at an attack could be carried out.
On Sunday, the Gujarat ATS claimed that Dr Saiyed was a member of a suspected terror module and was allegedly preparing Ricin — a lethal toxin — to carry out large-scale attacks. His handler, Abu Khadija, the ATS claimed, is associated with the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP). Two other men from Uttar Pradesh were also arrested in connection with the case.
Sources said Saiyed (36), a general physician, is unmarried and lives alone in a flat in Asad Manzil, a five-storey apartment building in Fort View Colony in Rajendranagar. A general physician who pursued his MBBS degree in China, sources said he would offer free online consultations to patients and was not part of any hospital or a clinic. Sources also said he was a business partner at an online food outlet.
An officer from the local Rajendranagar police station said they became aware of his arrest only after the Gujarat Police announced it.
According to the officer, Saiyed is the eldest of six children. His family hails from Khammam. He studied there and did his Intermediate School (class 11 and 12) in Hanamkonda near Warangal.
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In 2007, sources said, he went to China to pursue an “MBBS degree.” After he returned around 2012-13, he spent some time at Khammam before shifting to the flat in Rajendranagar.
Police sources said he also struck up a friendship with a hotel owner and became a partner in an online food joint, selling sandwiches and shawarma through food delivery apps. However, police said, the partner has not shared any information about Saiyed’s stake in the business when the local police made enquiries.
As per information shared by the Gujarat ATS, when they called up Saiyed’s brother, Umar Faruqui, from the Gujarat ATS Control Room, he said Saiyed had gone to Gujarat “to seal a business deal”.
Police sources claimed inquiries later revealed that Saiyed’s family members had confronted him several times about “parcels” he was receiving, which often included chemicals. He purportedly assured them that he was creating a chemical for commercial purposes which would “make them wealthy”, sources claimed.
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According to the police officer at Rajendranagar, Faruqi told them that the family moved to Hyderabad around 20 years ago and lived in Mehdipatnam for a few years before shifting to Tolichowki. Four years ago, they bought apartments at multiple places in the Upperpally area of Rajendranagar for the brothers and family to live.
Currently, the two things, apart from the questioning of the accused, that has led the ATS to believe there was a bioterror plot, is the recovery of the Castor Oil from Saiyed’s possession and evidence in the form of what materials he procured and from where, his search history in ChatGPT and the search engine.
The ATS had, on November 8, arrested Dr Ahmed Mohiyuddin Saiyed (35), Azad Suleman Sheikh, (20), and Mohammad Suhail Mohammad Saleem Khan (23), and has declared wanted, Abu Khadija, who is based in Afghanistan and associated with the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP). All have been booked under sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and the Arms Act.
After a few days of questioning, sources told The Indian Express that different ATS teams would visit the residences of all three accused persons and all places the three persons had visited during the time of plotting this alleged conspiracy.
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The sources said the ATS will be sending teams to the two towns in Uttar Pradesh – Shamli and Lakhimpur Kheri – at the homes of the other two accused persons.
When asked about the scale of the terror attack that was being planned and whether the accused had, during questioning, revealed how they had planned to use the Ricin in a possible bio-terror attack, an officer said that the accused had told them that they had not yet planned that far ahead and were still trying to isolate Ricin and would have decided on the delivery mechanism only after having achieved that aim.
Also, no radicalisation literature in physical form or in their phones have been found as yet. The Gujarat ATS are also on the lookout for any other members of this Cell.
Officers have also prima facie, not found any connection to the Delhi – Haryana terror cell that is accused of the blast that happened in the national Capital on Monday.
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Ricin can be extracted from Castor beans (Ricinus communis) which are readily available. Ricin is concentrated from the waste mash after extracting castor oil and is highly toxic to humans even in minor doses, and for which there is presently no antidote anywhere in the world. According to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Ricin is listed in Schedule-1 of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) it implements and monitors.
The alleged Ricin terror plot was busted when the ATS seized a silver Ford Figo car ahead of the Adalaj Toll Plaza on the Ahmedabad – Mehsana Road, driven by Dr Ahmed Mohiyuddin Saiyed. From the car, the ATS team led by Superintendent of Police K Siddharth had recovered and seized two Glock pistols, one Beretta pistol, 30 live cartridges, and nearly four litres of castor oil stored in a 10-litre plastic container.
Subsequently, on the basis of forensic examination of digital devices seized from Saiyed’s possession, the Gujarat ATS had apprehended two other individuals – Azad Suleman Sheikh and Mohammad Suhail Mohammad Saleem – who were arrested from Banaskantha. They are alleged to have provided the bag containing pistols and cartridges to Ahmed Mohiyuddin Saiyed after picking them up from a dead drop near the international border with Pakistan in Rajasthan. They are also alleged to have reconnoitred possible sites for a terror attack, which include the RSS building in Lucknow, UP, the vegetable market in Azadpur, Delhi, and the Naroda fruit market in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
Ahmed Mohiyuddin Saiyed had also allegedly been in contact with several individuals from Pakistan.
