(Top) Naqi Ahmed Waqi Ahmed Sheikh and Nadeem Akhtar Ashfaq Sheikh being brought to a Mumbai court on Monday; (above) Mumbai ATS chief Rakesh Maria shows a photograph of Yasin Bhatkal at a news conference in Mumbai on Monday. (PTI and AFP)

Jan. 23: Investigators in Maharashtra today announced the arrest of two youths allegedly linked to last year’s serial blasts in Mumbai but the “breakthrough” was challenged by Delhi police sources who claimed one of the suspects was their informer.

The Delhi sources also said that arrest in haste had alerted three key suspects and given them time to escape.

Security officials not involved with either side said the brawl appeared to be a manifestation of the scramble for credit and territorial mistrust plaguing the country’s terror-fighting networks.

Anti-terrorism squad (ATS) chief Rakesh Maria said in Mumbai that Naqi Ahmed Waqi Ahmed Sheikh, 22, and Nadeem Akhtar Ashfaq Sheikh, 23, both from Darbhanga, Bihar, had been booked on charges of terrorism under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, Explosives Act and murder and conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code.

The blasts on July 13, 2011, had killed 27 people. As many as 26 people died in Zaveri Bazaar and Opera House while a blast in Dadar killed one person. Over 120 people were injured.

The investigators said the two suspects stole two Activa scooters from South Mumbai which were used in the blasts at Zaveri Bazaar and Opera House. The ATS claimed to have seized from Darbhanga two motorcycles which were apparently stolen for future use.

Naqi and Nadeem have been sent to police custody till February 2. The ATS has also sought the custody of a third accused, Haroon Rashid Naik, 33, for investigation into the economic trail and the conspiracy. Naik was arrested in August in a counterfeit currency case.

According to the ATS, the main accused in the conspiracy is the Indian Mujahideen leader, Ahmed Zarar Siddibappa alias Yasin Bhatkal alias Imran. Two other accused, who were referred to as “A” and “B” and suspected to be Pakistani citizens, are also at large.

“Yasin Bhatkal had given Naqi Ahmed Rs 1.5 lakh to aid, assist and abet the crime. Nadeem was called to Delhi by Yasin Bhatkal who handed over a cloth packet to be given to Naqi, who was supposed to give it to the wanted accused. This packet had the detonators and explosives used in the blast,” Maria said.

He claimed that the entire conspiracy had cost Rs 10 lakh, routed through a hawala transaction.

The ATS said the explosives were assembled in a flat at South Mumbai’s Byculla, which Bhatkal had rented with the help of Naqi. The ATS has recorded the statements of the estate agent and the landlady who rented out her flat. The Byculla flat is located not too far from the ATS headquarters.

Naqi, who owns a leather business, has been living in Mumbai since 2010-end. The ATS claimed that Bhatkal was known to him since 2008. “Naqi had also facilitated the recce of the blast sites by helping enrol one of the wanted accused in a gym near Zaveri Bazaar. He would visit the gym in the evening between 7 and 8pm for the recce,” Maria said.

According to Maria, Naqi and Nadeem, along with six others, were arrested this month by the ATS while pursuing leads to a racket in obtaining SIM cards through bogus papers.

Indirectly referring to suggestions that Naqi is a police informer, Maria said: “Much has been written about the innocence of Naqi. It is not that he didn’t know about the antecedents of Bhatkal. Bhatkal used to visit him at Darbhanga, where indoctrination programmes were held to induct young boys into the modules.”

Media reports in the past week have suggested that Naqi was a Delhi police informer.

Delhi police sources today iterated that Naqi, who knew Bhatkal, was supposed to lead a Delhi police team camping in Mumbai to the three men living in the Byculla flat.

But before that, the ATS arrested Naqi in the forgery case after getting whiff of the Delhi police investigations in the ATS backyard. The arrest also alerted the three — Bhatkal and the two unidentified suspects, the Delhi sources claimed.

Maria today rubbished claims of a botch-up, saying that he had been working closely with Delhi police. “The so-called high-handedness of ATS is absolutely unfounded and far from the truth. The main accused in the case, Bhatkal, was in the city only in the month of June for some time and in July before the blasts. He left on July 13, while the other two left in November, around the same time when Delhi police arrested six IM men in a nation-wide operation.

“The reports have claimed that he was to return to the city to collect his rent deposit and that he would have been arrested then by Delhi police and that the ATS botched up the operation. This is not true. Would the terrorists come back for Rs 84,000?” Maria asked.

But sources in Delhi police said Naqi was first contacted by their special cell in December to trace IM militants responsible for the Mumbai serial blasts. On January 8, Delhi police officers had taken him to Mumbai to identify two suspects, they added.

According to Naqi’s brother Taqi Ahmed, Delhi police officers had taken Naqi to several places in Mumbai in search of terrorists. “I spoke to him on January 10 and he told me he would return home in a couple of days. But later I learnt that he was picked up by the Maharashtra ATS at night. He is suffering because of the ego clash between Delhi police and their counterparts in Mumbai. Whenever I call up Mumbai police, they abuse me,” Taqi said.

Taqi stays in Jamianagar in south-east Delhi and owns a small leather shop.

A Delhi police officer said: “They (the Maharashtra ATS) felt bad when Delhi police solved the Pune bakery blast case last year. Now it will be difficult for them to prove Naqi’s involvement.”

But a top security officer said: “It’s nothing but a turf war between the Maharashtra ATS and the Delhi special cell. Let them prove Naqi’s involvement in the court of law.”

Government sources in Delhi said there was no clash among agencies but conceded lack of clarity on sharing of information among different central and state agencies.

The Union home ministry is expected to meet directors-general of police next month to sort out problems of co-ordination between the ATS, central agencies and Delhi police.