The Mumbai police say the 20 Indian Mujahideen members they arrested in connection with the probe into bomb blasts and terror email had planned to kidnap a builder and a jeweller from Pune. The Pune police say they have no idea of any such plot, even though the details emerged during the interrogation of two of the persons picked up from Pune.The Mumbai police had seized anaesthetics from some of the arrested and according to them, a probe led to the unearthing of the plot. “This looks like one of the modes they were planning to fund their terror operations,” said Rakesh Maria, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch).“They conducted a recce of the area where the two persons lived for 15 days early this year. The idea of holding people to ransom seems to have come from Riyaz Bhatkal as he has a background in crime,” Maria said.Citing a “heavy police bandobast” as the reason for the failure of the kidnap plan, Maria said, “The amount of drugs and anaesthetics found is huge. One needs a prescription for getting such drugs and we are probing the source of the drugs.” While the IM’s media wing was busy learning hacking, this group was told to pick up the two persons and hold them at Ashoka Mews which the group had rented. “The idea was to drug the kidnapped and hold them till a ransom is paid,” Maria said. The Pune police, however, denied any police protection being provided to any builder or jeweller. “We have got no such report from the Mumbai police,” said Pune Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh. “The joint commissioner of Mumbai crime branch has all the details.”According to Intelligence agencies, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that kidnapping for ransom was a mean to fund terror activities. The last such case was the kidnapping of shoe baron Partho Burman in Kolkata in which a part of the ransom paid was believed to have reached terror outfits via Aftab Ansari, the main accused in the American Center attack case.
