Mumbai, Oct. 26: The Pune software engineer accused of sending the emails heralding the Ahmedabad and Delhi blasts has sought court permission to turn approver.
Mohammed Mansoor Asghar Peerbhoy, 31, arrested earlier this month, filed the application before a special MCOCA (anti-crime) court on October 21.
“He has filed an application for turning approver and recording a confessional statement. The hearing is on November 4. We shall file our reply; we are examining how it can benefit us,” joint commissioner of police (crime) Rakesh Maria told The Telegraph today.
By turning approver, Peerbhoy will be assisting the blast investigations. His confessions can help build a strong case against other accused and his testimony at the trial may make convictions more probable.
Two accused in the 1993 Bombay blasts case had turned approvers. Their identities had been kept secret and the Tada (anti-terror) court had pardoned them at the end of the 14-year trial.
The crime branch is likely to give its consent to Peerbhoy’s application. Investigations have shown that the techie “from a highly educated Mumbai family”, who earned Rs 19 lakh a year, had participated in the Indian Mujahideen’s activities without realising their implications, officers said.
Peerbhoy wasn’t convinced about the group’s ideology until Riyaz Bhatkal, a blast suspect who is still at large, cast a spell on him, investigators said. Bhatkal allegedly took Peerbhoy to Mecca Masjid and Lumbini Park, the sites of last year’s serial blasts in Hyderabad, and indoctrinated him heavily.
Peerbhoy had come in contact with the Mangalore-based Bhatkal at a Pune mosque, not long after returning a more religious man from a 2005 pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, the police said.
Bhatkal and his brother Iqbal are suspected to have drafted the pre-blast mails that were sent with the expertise of Peerbhoy, who had done a brief course in “ethical hacking” at a Hyderabad institute, the police said.
Twenty people have been arrested and booked under MCOCA, including Sadiq Shaikh, alleged co-founder of the Indian Mujahideen.
