The Tamil Nadu police on Tuesday conducted preliminary inquiries about Shahi Rafsan Jani (23), a Bangladeshi national, picked up for interrogation by the Hyderabad Police in connection with the recent twin blasts. The girl, suspected by the police to be a RDX carrier, was studying in a college in Vellore. Tamil Nadu Director General of Police P Rajendran however, denied reports that the Special Investigation Team probing the Hyderabad blasts had requested the state police to inquire about Jani in Vellore. “We have not received any formal or informal request from the SIT in Hyderabad. We just wanted to keep ourselves informed when we read newspaper reports about the girl. So the Vellore district police conducted some inquiries,” he said. The Vellore police traced the girl’s college by searching the foreigners’ registry. “We found that she registered as a foreign national in our office (which also serves as the Foreigner Registry Office) in 2005 when she enrolled in the Auxilium College in Katpady for BA (Literature),” Vellore District Superintendent of Police Arul Selvam told The Indian Express. She has a student visa which is valid up to 2008 and a valid passport from 2004. Jani stayed in a rented one-bedroom accommodation in a house on Johnson Street, close to the college, and attended the institution as a day scholar. She paid a rent of Rs 700. “Her father Jainal Abedin Gazi visited her frequently. In fact, he was her only visitor,” said the SP. On August 28, Jani left Vellore, informing the college authorities that she was going to Hyderabad to visit her “uncle”. On September 1, the Hyderabad Police detained her for questioning saying she had come to visit her brother Rizwan Gazi, describing him as an “illegal resident” of the city for six years. Rizwan, also a suspected RDX carrier, is absconding. “According to our inquiries, every day she would return to her rented lodgings from college and lock her self in the room. She rarely spoke to anyone nor did she get out much. We questioned College Principal Ujjam Fathima (a Christian nun) who said she was a “calm” girl and an average student,” said DSP Pattabhi. Meanwhile, Director of the famous Christian Medical College (CMC), Dr George Chandy, dismissed reports that Jani was a medical student of CMC. But he recollected that the Bangladeshi girl had donated blood twice and held a blood donor card. As to reports whether her father had undergone medical treatment at the hospital, he denied any knowledge.
