Author: Times News Network
Publication: The Times of India
Date: May 15, 2006
The five Malegaon men arrested on Saturday
in the Aurangabad arms case include Afzal Khan, Mushtaque Ahmed, Riyaz Ahmed
alias Raju and Javed Ahmed, besides the homoeopathic doctor Shareef Shabbir.
Sources said they are alleged synipathisers of the banned organisation Students'
Islamic Movement of India.
They were produced before a holiday court
and remanded to police custody till May 24. One of the arrested Abdul Azim
alias Raja told investigators that he and others, including Ansari, escaped
in the Indica and took it to a homoeopathic doctor's house at Islam Nagar
in Malegaon. They left the car at the residence of the doctor who runs a clinic
and a chemist's shop, Moti Medical, at Aman Chowk in Malegaon.
Sources in Dr Shabbir's family told TOI that
two acquintances of the doctor had met him on Tuesday and asked him if they
could park their car at his residence since "they had two vehicles with
them". They told Shabbir they would pick up the vehicle after a few days.
The duo also handed over the car keys to Shabbir
and he drove the car around town for three days. Family sources said when
the doctor realised that something sinister was involved, he abandoned the
car near the spinning mills at the border of Malegaon on Friday Police recovered
the car on Friday night.
ATS sources said a police team went to the
doctor's house on Saturday and he revealed that four other men accompanied
him while he drove the Indica around town. All five were then arrested.
Shabbir, a father of two, did LCEH, a homeopathy
course, from Mumbai University a decade ago. He reportedly met the prime accused,
Ansari, while studying in Mumbai.
Riyaz runs a cycle repair shop in Malegaon
and Afzal, Mushtaque and Javed are said to be car thieves. They have been
arrested for abetting a crime. "I don't want to reveal their role. Its
premature to say anything at this moment," joint commissioner of police
(ATS) K P Raghuvanshi said.
On Saturday, police had also found 50 grenades,
an AK47 and 200 bullets under a culvert in Manmad. Sources said the Lashkar-e-Taiba
(LeT) was planning a series of blasts in Mumbai, but Raghuvanshi denied having
such information. Police sources said a part of the seized consignment was
headed for Jammu, while another was being routed to Naxalite areas in Andhra
Pradesh.
The ATS suspect the presence of more RDX and
explosives and are flushing out LeT hideouts in Aurangabad and Marathwada.