Salem aide sings; says 1993 ammunition came from Gujarat

Riyaz Siddiqui, an aide of Abu Salem, is understood to have told the CBI that actor Sanjay Dutt received an AK-56 assault rifle from a cache...

Riyaz Siddiqui, an aide of Abu Salem, is understood to have told the CBI that actor Sanjay Dutt received an AK-56 assault rifle from a cache of arms he brought from Gujarat on the instruction of prime conspirator Anees Ibrahim in 1993.

Riyaz, arrested yesterday, reportedly told the CBI that Anees Ibrahim told him to go to Gujarat in January 1993 to collect an arms consignment. According to CBI special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, a woman also accompanied him. In Gujarat, Riyaz met Salem; the duo then drove back to Mumbai in separate vehicles, laden with arms and ammunition, which later reached the blasts accused, including Dutt.

Sources say that the CBI’s blasts theory could take a new twist if Siddiqui’s claim proves true of Gujarat’s having been at least one source of the ammunition the blast conspirators used. So far, the agency has held that the 1993 explosives, arms and ammunition landed at Dighi, Shekhadi and Nagla Bunder ports in Maharashtra and has said that it had no leads on their having arrived from outside the state.

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The CBI, seeking today to regain custody of Salem, also told the designated TADA court that Siddiqui had provided them information about the 1993 blasts, which Salem had allegedly withheld despite having been in the agency’s custody for over a month and having allegedly made a voluntary confessional statement on his role in the blasts conspiracy.

Nikam said both Salem and Siddiqui have provided new leads to those who could also be involved in the blasts, and that obtaining the custody of both Salem and Siddiqui was necessary so as to confront them on several issues.