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New Delhi, July 5: The way to a terrorist’s heart is through his stomach, or so Delhi police seem to believe.
The cops say they are plying 26/11 suspect Abu Jundal with the choicest Mughlai delicacies in the hope he will soften up and spill the beans.
“We are serving him mutton biryani and other meat dishes,” a senior officer told The Telegraph. “The biryani comes from a Khan Market restaurant; the police cook prepares the rest.”
Is the biryani bait working? Yes, say the police. For the first two days after his June 21 arrest, when he was served roti and dal, Jundal apparently pursed his lips in scorn, refusing to either eat or talk.
“Ab woh khul raha hai (now he is opening up),” an officer preened, while admitting that the five-foot-four, 34-year-old suspect — “street-smart and a good story-teller” — hadn’t yet revealed any key details of the Mumbai attack plot.
So, who’s baiting whom is yet to be answered. Besides, there could be questions from some Opposition quarters that lose no opportunity to highlight the expenses incurred to give gunman Ajmal Kasab supposedly kid-gloves treatment.
But the officer argued that a jihadi ideologue like Jundal couldn’t be treated like a petty criminal.
“We can’t afford to apply other methods to prise a confession out of him,” he said, almost with a wink. “We have to treat him and feed him well and be patient.”
Syed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal allegedly taught Hindi to the ten 26/11 gunmen and instructed them over satellite phone from a Karachi “control room”. Apparently handed over by Saudi Arabia, he has been lodged at the police’s special cell headquarters in upscale Lodhi Road.
The police are known to follow a “good cop, bad cop” routine to get suspects to sing, but seem to be applying only the first bit to Jundal.
“He has been kept in an air-conditioned room, where two constables always keep him company. They crack jokes with him to keep him in good humour,” the officer said.
“We never leave him alone lest he try to commit suicide out of depression. His revelations will help us nail Pakistan’s lies.”
Jundal nailed his chance on the third day after arrest. “He wouldn’t eat at first, saying he wasn’t hungry. When we insisted, he said he didn’t like dal-roti,” said another officer.
So, constables were told to get friendly and find out his preferences. “He told one of the constables that he loved mutton biryani and Mughlai.... Now he is enjoying his food,” the officer said.
“He has become friendly with the constables and often chats with them about his early days in his village (in Beed, Maharashtra).”
Jundal apparently talks a lot about his wife, whom he married in Karachi after the November 2008 attacks, and their one-and-a-half-year-old child. But since he hasn’t revealed much about the terror plot, the police sought and were granted another 15 days’ remand today.
The magistrate told the four other agencies that have sought Jundal’s custody — the National Investigation Agency, Mumbai crime branch, Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad and its Pune wing — to wait till July 20 and “take clues from” the Delhi police for now. Jundal is also being questioned by the Intelligence Bureau and the Research and Analysis Wing.
Sitting in a corner of the courtroom, Jundal chatted away with four constables. As officers looked on approvingly, he often broke into peals of laughter. Perhaps he was thinking of his next plate of biryani.
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