An accused person arrested in connection with last year's serial blasts in Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Surat and Hyderabad has claimed that the Indian Mujahideen (IM) and its founder Riyaz Bhatkal had no role in the 2006 serial bomb blasts on board local trains.
An accused person arrested in connection with last year's serial blasts in Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Surat and Hyderabad has claimed that the Indian Mujahideen (IM) and its founder Riyaz Bhatkal had no role in the 2006 serial bomb blasts on board local trains.
This was revealed in the confessional statement of Mohammad Irshad Sayyed, an IM member from Mangalore, which was opened in court yesterday. It states that Bhatkal had denied to Sayyed his or the outfit's role in the 7/11 explosions in Mumbai.
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This revelation is contradictory to what the state Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and city crime branch are investigating - the possibility of IM's role in the 2006 serial train blasts.
According to Sayyed's confession, which he recorded last October, Riyaz, whom he knew since 2004, had denied his and the IM's role in the Mumbai train blasts.
"In July 2006, I heard about the blasts in Mumbai. In newspapers, I read that a person by name Riyaz Bhatkal was the mastermind behind the blast. When I questioned Riyaz about this, he denied it and said he had no role to play in the Mumbai train blasts," it states.
Batkal, a native of Andhra Pradesh, is still absconding.
The ATS, which had investigated the 7/11 blasts case, had last month taken the custody of Mohammad Saddiq Shaikh, said to be a key member of IM, to probe if he had played a role in the execution of the train blasts.
Sayyed, a resident of Mangalore in Karnataka was in constant touch with Riyaz since 2004. He is accused of assembling and planting bombs in Ahmedabad and Surat.
Twenty-one persons have been arrested in the IM case so far and confessions of seven have been recorded with police. The confessional statements of some other accused persons will be opened on April 18.
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