Burdwan blast case: Kajal, key JMB member, made approver, says NIA

Kajal, arrested from Birbhum on November 10, is alleged to be one of the main conspirators in the Burdwan blast case.

In a bid to bolster the case against the accused in the Burdwan blast case and the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB)’s terror conspiracy investigated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Amjad Sheikh alias Kajal —alleged to be part of the “top brass” of the JMB in India —has been made an approver in the case, NIA sources said.

To strengthen the case further, the NIA is also securing a statement from JMB’s former India chief Bilal that is being recorded before a magistrate under Section 164 of the CrPC. While Bilal is not an accused in the case, his witness statement would aid the NIA in proving the larger terror conspiracy hatched by the JMB.

The October 2 Burdwan blast probe and the arrests of JMB operatives in West Bengal had sparked a war of words between the Mamata Banerjee regime in the state and the BJP.

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“We have a strong case against the JMB accused involved in the Burdwan blasts and the outfit’s terror conspiracy. To make the case water-tight, Kajal will be an approver who will provide crucial testimony against other JMB members involved. Besides this, the case will also be supported by a statement from Bilal, who was the chief of the JMB in India in 2006 and can throw considerable light on the network of the outfit and recruitment,” said an NIA source.

Kajal, arrested from Birbhum on November 10, is alleged to be one of the main conspirators in the Burdwan blast case. According to the NIA, he was instrumental in procuring explosive chemicals and providing them to co-conspirators for making IEDs. He was allegedly closely-associated with top JMB members who were running training modules in two madrasas in West Bengal.

An investigating team from Bangladesh reached Kolkata on Thursday to interrogate Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh ’s Burdwan module commander Sheikh Rehmatullah alias Sajid, a Bangladeshi national arrested from near the Kolkata airport on November 8.

Three days after his arrest, Bangladesh’s elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested his brother Mohammed Monayem in the country’s Narayanganj port town.

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