Why cops couldn’t probe Italian connection

A team from the Mumbai Police Crime Branch,including a top officer,was scheduled to fly to Italy as part of “an unofficial exercise’’ to grill “off the record’’ two Pakistani suspects arrested in the northern town of Brescia for their alleged involvement in 26/11. However,these plans had to be dropped after the two suspects were released on bail within a few days.

“We still have nothing on record about the two Pakistanis who were arrested in Italy in November 2009 for their role in laying the groundwork for the 26/11 attack. Following the arrests,a team of Crime Branch officers was scheduled to leave for Italy to question them. This would have been an unofficial exercise in which we would be granted access to the duo,” said a police officer,who did not wish to be named.

“To our dismay,the two suspects were released on bail barely three days after being arrested. Mindful of the human rights laws in Italy,we abandoned all plans of making a trip to question the duo off the record,” said the officer.

Subsequently,a local court issued a Letter Rogatory (LR) to the Crime Branch to officially follow up the arrests,but there has been no response to the LR till date.

On November 21,2009,Italy’s central anti-terrorism cell,DIGOS,arrested Mohammed Yaqub Janijua (61) and his son Aamer (32) from Brescia on charges of aiding and abetting the 26/11 attack. The Italian Guardia di Finanza,equivalent of the Indian Customs,was also involved in the operation.

Janijua and Aamer allegedly made money transfers that paid for the activation of the voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) account with New Jersey-based service provider Callphonex,which was used by the 26/11 terrorists and their Pakistan-based handlers to communicate with each other.

The Italian Police had acted on the 26/11 dossiers that India provided to several western countries after the attack. According to information provided by India,a Pakistani national identified as Javed Iqbal transferred $229 through Madina Trading Agency in Brescia for activation of the Callphonex account a day before the attack.

The DIGOS followed up on this information and found that Janijua and his son had stolen the identity of one Javed Iqbal to transfer the money.

On November 27,2009,Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate V V Bhambarde issued an LR,seeking information from an Italian court on the case against the father-son duo after the Mumbai Police approached the court.