Yasin Bhatkal: Always slippery,even when caught

According to blast case papers filed by the Bangalore police,and narratives by three other key accused,Bhatkal landed in the custody of Kolkata’s Shakespeare Sarani police station in December 2009 in a case of theft,filed by one Karishma Dhavan Seth,but was released after a few days. Bhatkal claimed to be Bulla Mallik,26,son of Karthik Mallik,and was let off on December 29,2009,because “nothing fruitful came out”,according to a Kolkata police report filed with the Bangalore case documents.

“Mallik” gave his address as No. 9,North Range,Kolkata-17. Two others arrested with Bhatkal gave their names as “Mohammed Nowsad,38,s/o Md Islam,footpath dweller of AJC Bose Road,Kolkata” and “Mohammed Jahangir,36,s/o late Md Sabbir,footpath dweller AJC Bose Road,Kolkata”.

Shakespeare Sarani officers have stated that no one by the name Yasin Bhatkal was arrested in connection with FIR 153 of 2009. They have,however,identified him from a photograph (which Bhatkal had submitted in the Ranchi passport office with a passport application dated January 20,2010 under the fake identity of Anjar Hussain),say the records in the stadium blasts case.

Among the three Bangalore suspects who gave evidence of Bhatkal being picked up,one was Mohammed Qateel Siddiqui (he was killed in prison in Pune in 2012),who allegedly travelled with Bhatkal to Kolkata. According to Siddiqui’s account,Bhatkal was arrested in Kolkata in a fake currency case while he himself managed to return to his home in Dharbhanga. Bhatkal arrived in New Delhi in January 2010,and claimed he had been arrested because a man he had gone to meet was a dealer in counterfeit currency,Siddiqui has stated. According to the accounts of the other two suspects,Mohammed Tariq Anjum,31,a former engineering collegemate of Bhatkal,and Gauhar Aziz Khomani,31,Bhatkal told them after returning to Delhi that he was released after he did not divulge any information on the currency case.

Other escapes

October 2008. The Mumbai police arrived in Mangalore with a key IM member,Akbar Ismail Choudhury,hoping to arrest Yasin Bhatkal,and Bhatkal brothers Riyaz and Iqbal. They tried for nearly five days to get Choudhury to identify places he had visited ahead of the Ahmedabad blasts that year. In the end,they sought the support of the local police. A raid was conducted on a house but Yasin and the brothers were not there but some others were. News of the raid was flashed by local television channels. The three Bhatkals,who were in another hideout nearby,were alerted and escaped that night to Shimoga district.

November 2011. The Delhi Special Cell arrested Yasin’s father-in-law Irshad Khan. The story goes that Yasin had stepped out of his Chennai hideout for a brief while when the police surrounded it. On his return,Yasin saw the police and fled,he later told associates.