7/11 case: ATS wants Indian Mujahideen man released

20 Apr 2009, 0000 hrs IST, Mateen Hafeez, TNN

MUMBAI: This may come as a jolt for the Mumbai crime branch. The anti-terrorism squad (ATS) will be filing an application next week in the court, seeking the release of Indian Mujahideen (IM) operative Sadiq Shaikh from the 7/11 Mumbai train bombing case.

The ATS has arrested Sadiq (32), in the blast case on February 28. ATS officials said that they questioned Sadiq thoroughly and even subjected him to brain mapping and polygraph tests but did not find his involvement in the train blast case. "We will be filing the application in the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act court to discharge Sadiq from the train blast case. This application will be filed before April 28,'' said ATS additional commissioner of police, Param Bir Singh.

The ATS statement comes a week after Sadiq's confessional statement (given in a crime branch case) was opened in the court in an another case. Sadiq, a Trombay resident, along with 20 others was caught by the city crime branch last year for sending email threats to news channels and claiming responsibility for a series of blasts across the country.

The crime branch had said that IM had engineered the 7/11 train blasts and Sadiq had helped in assembling and planting the bombs in the trains. However, Sadiq told the ATS that he was in Azamgarh at the time of 7/11 train blast case which his family members had also confirmed earlier.

The crime branch probe indicating IM's hand in the train blasts had come as a shock to the ATS since it had already arrested 13 suspected SIMI members in the case and filed a 11,000-page chargesheet against them. "We had interrogated Sadiq from all angles and found that he was not involved in the 7/11. Even the forensic test reports including brain mapping test, which is an admissible evidence in the court, did not suggest Sadiq's involvement in the train blast case,'' said an ATS officer.

The crime branch had claimed that the bombs for the blasts were manufactured in a Sewree flat and the RDX was procured by a wanted accused, Riyaz Bhatkal. On the other hand, the ATS is sticking to its old theory that the bombs were assembled at Govandi and not at Sewree. Moreover, the ATS said that the RDX was procured by a Pakistani, Ehsanullah, who had illegally entered India along with 10 other Pakistani accomplices.

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Tuesday, April 28, 2009