Bhubaneswar, Feb. 19: The special task force of the state crime branch today started interrogating the five SIMI activists to find out their contacts in Odisha, which enabled them to get two houses on rent in Rourkela and Bhadrak.
The task force personnel took two of the accused to their rented accommodation at Nanga Mohalla in Bhadrak district. Crime branch special DG B.K. Sharma also visited the spot. The investigating agency found a pen drive, some literature of the banned outfit SIMI and two mobile phones from the rented accommodation.
"We will conduct a forensic test of the seized articles. We are also interrogating the owner of the house," said Sharma.
The police said the group stayed at the rented accommodation in Bhadrak for eight months before taking shelter at Nallah Road in Rourkela .
The cops suspect the SIMI members had strong local links . "Three of the five SIMI members had stayed for a week in Sambalpur only a few days after escaping from Khandwa jail in Madhya Pradesh. They have also stayed in Bhadrak and Rourkela for one year. It is hard to believe that they were able to get rented accommodations without local contacts," said a police official.
The five SIMI activists are Mohammad Salik, 33, Zakir Hussain, 32, Amjad Khan, 27, Sheikh Mehboob, and Najma Biwi, the 60-year-old mother of Mehboob.
Later in the day, the special task force brought the five accused to Bhubaneswar and started interrogating them. Sources said a special team had been constituted to look after the security arrangements while another team would question them their module and activities in and outside the state. A lady police officer has also been deployed to quiz Najma.
The cops have got the five SIMI operatives on a 13-day remand that will end on March 1. In another development, a team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has reached Rourkela and began its investigations today.
The police said that all the four accused, except Najma, were involved in three cases being investigated by the NIA and carry a reward of Rs 10 lakh each.
