Crime branch wants Jundal for 26/11, ATS for German bakery blasts
Mateen Hafeez, TNN Jun 26, 2012, 01.45AM IST
MUMBAI: Zabihuddin Ansari alias Zaby alias Abu Jundal's custody is being sought both by the Mumbai crime branch and the Anti-Terrorism Squad.
While the Mumbai crime branch has already obtained a production warrant from a city court for Zaby's custody to ascertain his role in the 26/11 attacks, the ATS is preparing for a transfer warrant to take him into custody in Pune's German Bakery blasts, the 2006 Aurangabad arms haul and several forgery cases.
On Monday, Ujjwal Nikam, special public prosecutor during Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab's trial and 26/11 investigating officer Ramesh Mahale moved a metropolitan magistrate, seeking that Jundal should be produced in a Mumbai court. Zaby is believed to have guided and controlled the terrorists at Nariman House from a Karachi control room throughout the night of November 27, 2008.
"When the terror attack in Nariman House was in progress, Abu Jundal gave instructions to the attackers on phone and his conversation was intercepted by Mumbai police. The transcripts are on record. Jundal told the attackers that they should talk to the electronic media in a particular manner," Nikam told the court. Jundal gave the attackers a certain text to be given to electronic channels. His intention was to show that 26/11 was masterminded by Indian Muslims and not Pakistani terrorists, but it was foiled by Kasab's arrest.
Nikam further added that Kasab had told the special trial judge that
Jundal was in a Pakistani vessel, al-Husseni, with the 10 attackers and three other Pakistanis when they hijacked the Indian vessel Kuber. After the 10 terrorists boarded Kuber, Jundal wished them success for their mission and returned to Pakistan on the al-Husseini. Nikam added that the voice on the intercepted phone call has to be matched by a scientific spectrograph test with voice samples which will have to be taken from Jundal, hence his custody was necessary.
{Even NIA can make those voice samples and he can identify the other voices in the tapes. I dont understand the Maha eagerness to get hold of Jundal. Its not like they had the lead in getting the perpetrator to India. Besides Kasab is enjoying birayani in a Maha jail. Not like Mr. Nikam got speedy trial earlier! }
Armed with the production warrant issued by the magistrate, a Mumbai police team will now go to Delhi to seek Jundal's custody and bring him here to stand trial. Jundal is the first Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operative to be arrested after Kasab.
Zaby, 31, first came under the police scanner in 2006. "We had specific information that a person (Zaby) would come near the Manmad-Chandavad highway on May 6, 2006, with a huge consignment of arms and ammunition. We spotted three men in a Tata Sumo and an Indica driven by a man. We chased the two vehicles towards Aurangabad highway and caught the trio in the Sumo, but the man in the Indica gave us a slip. He later turned out to be Zaby, the main player in transporting the arms," said an ATS officer who was part of the operation.
The ATS arrested 21 men- six from Beed district, five from Malegaon, five at Aurangabad, two in Parbhani district and three from other places. "Zaby drove the Indica to Malegaon and met some acquaintances there. He told them he needed to park his car for a few days as he was going to meet a relative. The car was packed with arms," said police.
Police had seized 43kg of RDX, 50 hand grenades, 16 AK-47 rifles and 3,200 live bullets. The suspects are facing trial under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). The trial was stayed for two-and-a-half years after an accused challenged the constitutional validity of certain provisions of MCOCA, but resumed in June 2009. The ATS disposed of the seized explosives on July 7, 2006.
Zaby, say police, underwent training in operating firearms and explosives in late 2005 or 2006.
{Where:?:} "We don't know when exactly he went for training. But on his return, he sent around half-a-dozen youths from Maharashtra to Pakistan's Muridke camp for training," said an officer.
"
Zaby attended a meeting in a Colombo hotel where Indian Mujahideen operative Yasin Bhatkal and suspected key SIMI players like Fayyaz Kagzi and others were present. In the meeting, it was decided that Zaby would pass on LeT instructions to the Bhatkal group. Now that Zaby has been arrested, his interrogation will unravel several sensitive cases," said a police officer.