Journalism of Courage
Minutes after they had planted the Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) on J M Road on August 1 last year,the suspects regrouped to watch the blasts news on television. Eight suspects,including three from Pune,have been arrested so far.
Four suspects Imran Khan Wajid Pathan of Nanded,Irfan Mushtaq Landge (32) of Ahmednagar and Asad Khan Jamshedali Khan (33) of Aurangabad and Feroz alias Humza Abdul Hameed Sayyed (38),a resident of Shukrawar Peth in Pune,were arrested by the Delhi Police between September 26 and October 9,2012.
Later,Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested four more,including Munib Iqbal Menon (32) of Kondhwa,Farooq Shaukat Bagwan (32) from Ghorpade Peth,in Pune,Sayyed Aarif alias Kaashif Sayyed Jafaruddin Biyabani (32) of Aurangabad and Aslam Shabbir Shaikh alias Banti Jahagirdar (40) of Ahmednagar for alleged links with the case.
According to the ATS chargesheet,on May 1,2013,Feroz alias Hamza,after planting the IEDs,returned to his shop,where accused Farooq Bagwan was waiting for him as pre-decided. Munib Memon was in Kondhwa area carrying Ferozs mobile phone. Thereafter,Feroz called Munib at his shop and they together watched the news pertaining to the blasts on TV.
According to ATS,top Indian Mujahideen operative and wanted accused Riyaz Bhatkal and LeT operative Fayyaz Kagzi had given specific instructions to the suspects to keep the use of cellphones to bare minimum. They had also instructed that to mislead the police,cellphones should not be carried in and around the spots where blasts had been planned and also at places where meetings for the conspiracy and preparations are held.
ATS believes that all suspects followed these instructions. Accordingly,Feroz kept his cellphone with Munib in Kondhwa area. Feroz had planted two bombs on J M Road on August 1. Other four were planted by wanted accused Shakir alias Asadullah Akhtar alias Javed alias Tabrej and Ahmed alias Wakas. After planting the bombs,Feroz reportedly returned to his shop and watched blast news on television with Bagwan and Munib.
Meanwhile,investigation also revealed that suspects used cellphones in the name of other persons for communication with each other for carrying out the terror attack.
According to ATS,Asad Khan used the cellphone number issued in the name of Afroz Jamshedali Khan,who worked as servant at his house for 15 years. Asad made several calls to other suspects using this number.
Similarly,other suspects used numbers in the name of their friends,relatives for calling each other. Also,two cellphones used by Feroz alias Hamza were issued in the name of two citizens a woman from Satara and a man from Pune. When ATS approached them,it came to light that they had never procured the numbers and were unaware how Feroz got them. He used these cell numbers for calling other terror suspects.
Meanwhile,the probe also revealed that Munib and Bagwan had arranged two SIM cards in fake names of Mohsin Shaikh and Vijay Kulkarni by submitting forged documents. Using these SIM cards,Feroz and Irfan contacted a real estate agent and took a flat on rent in Kasarwadi area of Pimpri-Chinchwad on July 10. Bombs were assembled in this flat.
