Between two big cases under anti-terrorist law and two investigating agencies, this suspect seems to have given police the slip with remarkable ease.The CBI wants Mohammaed Junaid Sheikh as a conspirator in the Haren Pandya murder case. And the detection of crime branch (DCB) of Ahmedabad police wants him as prime witness in a POTA case in which 82 people have been booked for waging war against the state. The chargesheets filed by the two agencies on subsequent days in the special POTA court indicate that he was well within their grasp.The CBI chargesheet, filed on September 8, says the agency put him through a lie-detector test on July 23. And the DCB chargesheet, filed on September 9, includes a statement by Sheikh recorded before a magistrate — it’s mandatory in all POTA cases — under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code. The CBI admits that Sheikh was detained briefly, but denies any laxity.G Mohanty, CBI spokesperson in Delhi, says: ‘‘During the course of investigation, he was found to be a suspect and called for questioning. Investigators thought he was not revealing all the facts, so he was put through a polygraph test.‘‘We let him go as he was only a suspect till that time. Further investigation revealed he was involved. He was to be arrested but was found to be absconding. He will soon be arrested.’’According to the chargesheet, the 17 key questions that were administered to Sheikh during the polygraph test related to his alleged sheltering of Pandya’s killers, and his involvement in hatching the murder conspiracy with Mufti Sufian Ahmedmiyan Patangia and Rasoolkhan Yaqubkhan Pathan alias Rasool Pati.As a preliminary to the polygraph test, Sheikh, a building contractor, gave a written statement to the forensic psychologist that he first met cleric Sufiyan two-and-half years ago at the Lal Masjid, where he carried out repairs. Sheikh denied having provided funds to the cleric, or having known that his house, whose keys he had given to the cleric, was being used to lodge the other accused.But Sheikh revealed that in November-December 2002, Mufti Sufiyan had told him of three boys having been sent to Pakistan. He also revealed that three days after Pandya was gunned down on March 26, 2003, Sufiyan had told him that ‘‘my men have killed Pandya.’’He admitted that he had accompanied the cleric on a trip to Palanpur sometime after the killing. While returning, they were accompanied by two men, one of whom was addressed by the cleric as Mehmaan, who the CBI says is none other than Asghar Ali, Pandya’s killer. Despite the implications of these revelations, CBI chose to let Sheikh go.Now for the DCB aspect to this. While DCB officers refuse to say anything on this, Sheikh’s mother Zohrakhatun alleges DCB men had picked her son up three months ago and kept him in detentionShe says she had visited him in its office thrice. She told The Indian Express that when she went there a month back, officers told her he had been released, but she hasn’t seen him at all. All that DCP D G Vanzara, who heads the DCB, confirmed was that Sheikh was their witness in the case of waging war against the state.A youth near his house in Karoda Ni Pol in Kalupur said, ‘‘We haven’t seen him for more than two months. Maybe he’s in police custody. Sleuths did visit the house and the area several times looking for him.’’ For the CBI, he’s an ‘‘absconding accused’’ while the DCB needs him as an important witness. But where is he? Neither seems to know.
