Pune techie ‘Al-Qaeda link’ case: ATS questions Thane teacher, lets him go after search at his house yields nothing

ATS clarified that the searches were unrelated to the blast in Delhi on Monday that claimed nine lives, but added that as part of the standard procedure, it was examining whether there was a possible Maharashtra link to the incident in the national capital.

An officer said, “We conducted searches and questioned him, but so far have not found much, following which he was allowed to go.”

Speaking to the media, the man’s wife said, “We have no links to any group but have been harassed since yesterday (Tuesday). I have given a complaint to the local police.”

An officer said the man’s house was searched because during the ATS probe in another case, it came to the fore that one of the meetings by the arrested Pune-based software engineer, Zubair Hangargekar, may have been held here. The teacher is neither an accused nor a witness in the case, the officer clarified.

ATS nabbed Hangargekar, 37, from Pune on October 27 for his alleged links with banned outfits in the subcontinent, and for his suspected involvement in radicalisation activities. It also claimed to have found a Pakistani contact number saved on his old phone.

“We searched the premises of two individuals, one in Kondhwa (in Pune) and another in Mumbra, and questioned them,” another officer said, adding that there was no connection between Hangargekar and the Delhi blast.

Earlier this month, ATS told a Pune court that Hangargekar allegedly used to deliver religious discourses “aggressively” in the city’s Kondhwa area.

During a house search there, ATS said it seized mobile phones containing deleted PDF files titled ‘Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) and All Its Manifestations’.

It also claimed to have recovered an Urdu translation of a speech delivered by the late Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden on Eid-ul-Fitr. In addition, a magazine titled ‘Inspire’ was found, containing photographs of AK-47 training at ‘OSG gun school’ and documents detailing the procedure to make an IED using acetone peroxide from an ‘OSG bomb school’, it told the court.