Techie linked to Al-Qaeda preached ‘democracy is against Shariat’: ATS probe

It has been learnt that Hangargekar studied at the Solapur Social Association Urdu High School, before completing his BE degree from the Walchand Institute of Technology, Solapur. After shifting to Pune, he initially worked for a prominent IT company in Hinjewadi.

Sources in the ATS said despite working in the software industry for over 15 years, Hangargekar still had an orthodox mindset, with strict adherence to Sharia. “Probe revealed that Hangargekar was practising Sharia within his family. Besides, he was actively preaching to impressionable youngsters that democracy is against Shariat. He urged the youth to boycott India’s democratic process,” sources said.

Probe revealed that Hangargekar got highly radicalised after meeting terror suspects from Pune and Hyderabad in 2015. “He was extensively reading books and content produced by radical preachers from the Middle East, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, including top-tier Al-Qaeda ideologues. He has studied major Al-Qaeda attacks in depth, including the 9/11 attack in the USA,” sources said.

A probe into Hangargekar’s social media activities revealed that he is a member of multiple Telegram groups, including international ones, that circulate extremist content. Sources said he also created his own Telegram groups comprising youngsters and other like-minded individuals, where they allegedly “discussed topics such as Ghazwa-e-Hind, establishment of the Khilafat and replacing democracy with Shariat in India, and dissolving national boundaries by working for a united global Ummah.”

The ATS is probing over 1 TB (terabyte) data recovered from Hangargekar’s cell phone and laptop. According to the ATS, an Urdu translation of a speech given by Osama Bin Laden was retrieved from Hangargekar’s cell phone recovered from his residence in Kondhwa Khurd, Pune.

The ATS also claims to have recovered from his devices multiple Al-Qaeda and AQIS magazines that glorify “martyrdom through jihad” and openly urge the readers to “establish Khilafat rule in India through violent jihad.”

Sources said that these magazines have bomb making manuals with information on carrying out lone-wolf attacks, and undertaking guerrilla-style terror operations. This month, ATS has submitted in the court that a publication called “Inspire Magazine” retrieved from Hangargekar’s cell phone had information such as “OSJ Gun School”, with photographs of “training with AK 47 rifles” and “OSJ Bomb School” as well as details about making acetone peroxide IEDs.

The ATS has received a confidential report from the High Energy Materials Research Laboratory (HEMRL) of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in Pune, about the bomb making procedure mentioned in the magazine.

The ATS has submitted in court that Hangargekar spoke “aggressively” during his “Dars (lectures) on Quran, Hadith as well as Khilafat at a location in Kondhwa.” According to the ATS, a day after his arrest, a person in his contact allegedly shifted some suspicious literature and documents from this location, and burnt it at a madrasa in Kalepadal area. Sources said he also conducted “Dars” sessions in Solapur and Thane for indoctrinating youths.

So far, the ATS has seized 12 cell phones, six laptops, four hard discs, two pen drives and a sim card from Hangargekar and his contacts for investigation. The state anti-terrorism agency has also found that Hangargekar was closely linked to some persons earlier booked in terror cases. The ATS has recorded statements of some of them, including an Urdu PhD scholar and former lecturer at the National Defence Academy (NDA), who was arrested and convicted under Arms Act, but let free of terror conspiracy charges in 2002-2003 Mumbai serial blasts cases.