The money and the men behind the 13/7 blasts

Unlike earlier operations,where alleged IM members had bank accounts stashed with funds sent from abroad,this method using hawala was new. Security agencies claim at least four to five people were involved in this money trail.

Pathreja had allegedly taken instructions on phone. Riyaz Bhatkal,the co-founder of IM,had made the calls. Haroon Naik,a former SIMI member and an acquaintance of Riyaz Bhatkal,had made the connections. The terror plot had taken shape at least a year earlier,sometime in the second half of 2010. And Imran was none other than Yasin Bhatkal,the IMs operational commander in India and a trained bomb-maker. He was allegedly at the centre of the plot that saw him shuttling between Meer Vihar village in Delhi and Darbhanga in Bihar under that alias.

In Delhi,Yasin allegedly made the bombs at the engineering workshop of IM member Mohammed Irshad Khan. In Darbhanga,disguised as a doctor,he was apparently indoctrinating young men to build a new cadre,with senior IM members behind bars.

After his last recorded appearance in February 2010 at the German Bakery blast in Pune,Yasin had moved north. He had made a new friend,Naqi Ahmed,a Darbhanga resident with family businesses in Delhi and Mumbai and an alleged dealer in forged and bogus SIM cards. Naqi introduced Yasin to Nadeem Akhtar,investigators say. Days after Yasin received the money,Akthar ferried the cash to Mumbai. The bombers would follow.

THE TENANTS

At Habib Apartments in the central Mumbai suburb of Byculla,Rubina Quereshi,a widow,had a flat to rent. This would later become the terrorists safehouse. In February,Sultan Mirza,60,a real estate broker and her neighbour,brought the tenants. A broker at Madanpura had sent the youths,Mirza says.

Dressed in simple shirts and trousers but with really heavy sports shoes,the very tall boys looked not more than 25. Two others had already inspected the house,Mirza says. The contract was made at Rs 8,000 per month and a New Delhi address was written down. One of the youths signed his name as Waqas Saad and introduced his friend as Tabrez.

Meanwhile,Yasin had reached Mumbai. With Naqis Madanpura contacts,the two had zeroed in on Rubinas third floor apartment. Waqas and Tabrez,whom the ATS has called A and B,moved in soon. For some time all four used the flat; later only A and B remained.

Mirza was bothered by the youths hairstyle. It always covered their eyes. I found it very weird and insulting, he says. Rubina adds,Like Salman Khans haircut in Tere Naam. It covered their eyes though. Neighbours on the busy street were only aware of the rent they paid. They were BPO employees to some,part-time students to others,though Rubina recalls Waqas mentioning a part-time job at a SIM card dealership.

In March 2011,the two got to work. Naqi Ahmed joined a gym and introduced the two there. The Mumbadevi Vyayamshala at the Durgadevi Ground in Kumbharwada offered an excuse to frequent Zaveri Bazaar,one of the three locations that would be bombed.

The membership was deliberately and meticulously kept for evenings,between 6pm and 7pm,around the time the bombs would explode four months later. One of the boys also joined the Gulab Puran Gawli Medical Fitness Centre inside Dagdi Chawl in the Byculla-Saat Rasta area the stronghold of gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli. His membership was from August 10 till October,the ATS says.

They obviously scoped the area well as the bombs were placed easily in the most crowded spots: the parallel food streets or khau galis of the diamond and gold market. In a fast-paced city such as Mumbai,five months is enough to become a local, says an ATS officer.

Yasin finally called Akhtar to Delhi by June-end. He was given a cloth packet which allegedly contained detonators and explosives for the blast, says Rakesh Maria,Additional General of Police,ATS. By July,the bombs arrived,again followed by Yasin.

Two Honda Activa scooters,probably chosen for their boot space,were stolen on nights ahead of July 13.

The bombs,planted at three places,killed 27 and injured 107.

THE EVIDENCE

Hair,sweat and nail samples collected from Rubinas apartment,where the alleged terrorists stayed,is a crucial sample pool,besides samples from Meer Vihar village in Delhi for Yasin Bhatkals genetic profile. This is the first time that agencies will have his DNA,sources claim.

After the blast,the alleged bombers continued living in the apartment,until October-end. I went to collect my dues once in August. I recall sheets of newspapers being used as bed spreads. A stove and pretty much nothing. It was weird, recalls Rubina.

Bikes from the area got stolen in August and October 2011. We know it was for some specific purpose and part of a larger plan, says Maria.

In October,the day before Eid,the two disappeared. They just left the house as if they had scrambled. Bed sheets were unfolded,there was nothing at home,newspapers were spread in the room with many footprints of many shoes all over, says Rubina.

The ATS has as evidence the desktop that the operatives left. Another lead is the use of forged identities to procure bogus SIM cards. No verification has been done, says Maria,adding that several terror cases are stuck because the trail goes cold on forged SIM cards purchased on dubious identities.

The first arrests were made on January 1,when three youths from Mohali were brought to Mumbai. Another bunch followed from Samastipur and a few others from Pune. Naqi and Nadeem were picked up on January 12,after they first emerged as bogus SIM card racketeers. Eight young men,natives of Deora Bandhuli,Samastipur and Darbhanga,had apparently helped crack the latest serial blasts.

Abdul Wahab,a 19-year-old engineering student,used his Deora Bandhuli voters ID-card to buy SIMs for himself and Qamre Alam. Wahab,a friend of Naqi Ahmeds,borrowed SIM cards from friends in Bihar during his visits to Darbhanga as their own cards from Mohali did not have the roaming facility. Wahab may have unwittingly used one such fraudulently procured SIM card,which had been used by an IM member on his IMEI handset,creating a trail. On his return to Mohali,he lent his phone to his roommate Alam who arrived in Mumbai in July. Around November,sources informed the ATS that IM operatives were using bogus SIM cards and their movements were suspicious. The use of the forged SIM allegedly given by Naqi Ahmed is believed to have helped the agencies.

Rubina now dreads the day when she will be called to identify her former tenants. When I told Tabrez that I do not want any complaints of eve-teasing as the building has many young women,he gave me a strange look and said,We wont give you such troubles. I never knew that they were here to kill people, she says.

(Inputs by Sagnik Chowdhury,Sukanya Shetty & Joshua Patnigere)