Mumbai: Two unani doctors have been arrested from Maharashtra in connection with the September 8 Malegaon bombings that killed 37 people and injured over 100, the Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) said on Tuesday.
Both the men have been booked under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). They were brought to Mumbai and produced before a special MCOCA court in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Addressing a news conference, ATS chief Krishan Pal Raghuvanshi said that the two suspects, both unani practitioners - Dr Farooq and Dr Salman - had been arrested.
"While, Dr Farooq was arrested from Malegaon, Dr Salman was arrested from central Mumbai's Govandi. Dr Farooq has been brought to Mumbai. Both are suspected to be prime conspirators in the case. However, we can reveal details after further interrogation," Raghuvanshi said.
"Although, the duo's role as conspirators has been established, we have to prove further if they played any active roles as bomb planters or not," the ATS chief said.
"The duo has been booked under the MCOCA and were produced before the special MCOCA court today," he added. With the duo's arrest, the total number of arrests in the case has gone up to five.
On October 30, the ATS claimed to have made the breakthrough in the bombings when it arrested 25-year-old Noor-ul-Hooda, an activist of the banned Students Movement of India (SIMI) and an employee of a local battery unit in Malegaon.
The ATS believes that Hooda is one of the men who planted the bombs kept on bicycles outside a mosque at Malegaon. Interestingly Hooda was already in police custody before the ATS had booked him under the MCOCA in connection with the Malegaon bombing case. Hooda was arrested for a bomb hoax case at a local shopping complex in Malegaon,
It was only during the course of interrogation that the ATS sleuths stumbled on his involvement in the bombings. During interrogation he spilled the beans on co-accused and prime conspirator Shabbir Ahmed Masiullah alias Shabbir Batterywala.
Police said Shabbir too was already in custody. He had been arrested by the Mumbai Police's crime branch under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act 1967 for his role in the September 13 bomb hoax at Malegaon. He is currently in judicial custody till November 16," a senior ATS official said.
The ATS official said that Shabbir had allegedly undergone arms training in Pakistan in handling sophisticated arms and ammunition, and explosives.
On November 5, the ATS arrested a third conspirator Raees Ahmed from Malegaon. Raees is the brother-in-law of prime conspirator Shabbir Batterywala and is currently under police custody till November 16. "Raees is a conspirator and a bomb planter," said the official.
The ATS, along with Maharashtra police and central intelligence agencies, has been probing the serial blasts on September 8 just outside a local mosque and an adjacent graveyard minutes after the Friday afternoon prayers in the communally sensitive textile town of Malegaon.
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