The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday took serial blasts accused Imtiyaz Ansari on three-day police remand.
Imtiyaz, a native of Sithio village in Ranchi and an Indian Mujahideen (IM) operative, was arrested after a bomb went off inside a public lavatory at Patna Junction a few hours before the BJP’s Hunkar Rally at Gandhi Maidan on October 27. His aide Enul alias Tarique, also hailing from Sithio, suffered fatal injuries in the explosion.
An additional superintendent of police posted at the Lucknow branch of NIA who is investigating the case petitioned the designated NIA court headed by Anil Kumar Singh seeking 10-day remand of Imtiyaz. The court granted only three-day remand and asked the agency not to torture him in the police custody.
During the three-day remand, Imtiyaz would be taken to the places where he stayed with the other members of the terror outfit, planned the attack at Gandhi Maidan, stored the explosives before the operation and training was imparted to the operatives.
Hours before NIA sought remand of Imtiyaz, a Lakhisarai police team conducted a raid at Jharia in Jharkhand late last night and detained one Raju Sao, suspected to be involved in funding the Ranchi module of IM. The cops were looking for his three brothers — Pappu Sao, Bittu and Jitendra Sao. None of them was present in the house. Raju was later arrested.
Lakhisarai superintendent of police (SP) Rajiv Mishra said the raid was conducted in Jharkhand on the basis of information provided by NIA. The SP said four persons — Gopal Kumar Goyal, Vikas Kumar, Pawan Kumar and Ganesh Kumar — were arrested earlier for their alleged involvement in financing the terror outfit through hawala transactions.
The police were probing the links of the arrested persons with Pakistan’s ISI, charged with providing financial help to the IM. Preliminary investigation revealed that the arrested persons used to get instructions from one Ibrahim of Pakistan and Ayesha Bano of Mangalore in Karnataka for managing funds in 50 bank accounts. Their modus operandi was to withdraw a certain sum from an account through ATM and deposit it in another.
NIA sources said Lakhisarai’s Chhoti Dargarh resident Md Faiyaz and Badi Dargah resident Md Kismet Ansari were the local handlers of the racket.
Some senior officers claimed that this was the first clear lead on the transfer of illegal funds to terror suspects.
