Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and another person, arrested for their alleged involvement in the September 29 Malegaon blast, were subjected to narco-analysis tests in Mumbai on Monday.The Sadhvi and Sameer Kulkarni underwent the scientific tests conducted by officials of the Forensic Science Laboratory in a hospital in south Mumbai, Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad officials said.The tests on former army officer Ramesh Upadhyay is likely to be conducted on Wednesday.
The National Investigation Agency, which has been struggling to collect evidence in the 2006 Malegaon blast case, is likely to quiz some of the Maharashtra ATS officials who had probed the case.
A wanted accused in the 13/7 Mumbai blasts, who had planted one of the bombs that went off that fateful evening, had enrolled himself at a gymnasium owned by the family of underworld don-turned-politician Arun Gawli, the Anti-Terrorism Squad said on Friday.
As Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Rakesh Maria claimed a breakthrough in the 13/7 Mumbai blasts case on Monday he seems to have ruffled quite a few feathers. Though he junked out reports of a tiff with the special cell of the Delhi police in carrying out the probe, insiders say the arrests of the two Darbhanga operatives were an attempt by the ATS to gain an upper hand in the investigation.
Notwithstanding the charge sheet filed by ATS holding Himayat Beig as an accused in the Pune blast, which took place on this day last year killing 17 people, including foreigners, the police is yet to answer many queries regarding the blasts including the triggering mechanism and the modus operandi adopted by the perpetrators.
Nine persons, who have been lodged in jail for the last four years on charges of their involvement in the Malegaon bomb blasts, are preparing the sue the Anti-Terrorism Squad for allegedly falsely implicating them in the case, following the confession by Swami Aseemanand of his involvement in it. The blasts that rocked the textile town in September 2006 had resulted in the death of 32 people.
The Mumbai police on Tuesday registered a First Information Report against unknown persons in the case of the missing bullet-proof jacket of former Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare.The FIR was registered at the JJ Marg police station in south Mumbai, on an order passed by the Mazgaon metropolitan magistrate, following a complaint made by social activist Santosh Daundkar.The magistrate had ordered the police to probe the whereabouts of the missing jacket.
A motorcycle-borne youth, suspected to be an activist of banned outfit Students Islamic Movement of India, shot dead three persons in broad daylight on Saturday in Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh. The incident in the communally-sensitive town occurred today afternoon, when an unidentified motorcycle-borne youth first shot at Anti-Terrorism Squad constable Sitaram Batham, 32, in the Teen Pulia area.
Setting at rest the controversy that slain Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare died because of defective bulletproof jacket, the postmortem report has revealed that he received five bullets in and around his neck.
Kavita Karkare, the wife of former Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare, on Wednesday has questioned the state government as to why her husband and two other senior police officials, who were killed on November 26 last year, did not get reinforcements on time.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi is learnt to be unhappy that All India Congress Committee General Secretary Digvijay Singh has raised a fresh controversy over the killing of Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare, even as the party is already embroiled in a number of issues.
Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh on Saturday made a sensational claim that two hours before the terrorists struck in Mumbai on November 26, 2008, Anti-Terror Squad chief Hemant Karkare had called him and informed him that his life was under threat from those who opposed to his probe into the Malegaon blast.
The CG and ATS personnel seized the boat Al Sakar which had 50 kg heroin on board, in the Arabian Sea, the official said.
A team of Central Bureau of Investigation officials and the Rajasthan Anti-Terrorism Squad is camping in western Madhya Pradesh in connection with the Samjhauta Express and Ajmer Dargah bomb blasts that took place couple of years ago and has questioned 10 people so far.
A Special Investigating Team was formed by the Goa government on Sunday to probe the Margao blast in which two members of a Hindu right-wing organisation, allegedly involved in the explosion, were killed.
Kanyakumari Express has Suresh Gopi playing a cop again, but the Suresh Babu-directed film fails to deliver.
The Anti-Terrorism Squad of Rajasthan arrested another suspect in the 2007 Ajmer Dargah blast case who had allegedly played a key role in the conspiracy behind the incident in which three persons were killed.
The Rajasthan government claimed that Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader Indresh Kumar, whose name figures in the chargesheet in the 2007 Ajmer Dargah blast case, provided "guidelines" on how to go about carrying out the explosion.
The National Investigating Agency is unlikely to oppose the bail pleas of the nine accused arrested by the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad in the 2006 Malegaon bomb blast case when they come up for hearing this week.
Dr Ram Puniyani, member of the EKTA, Committee for Communal Amity, Mumbai, speaks about the arrests of Muslim youth in Maharashtra.
The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad has got a breakthrough in the 13/7 Mumbai blasts case. The ATS team has zeroed in on the thief who stole the bike on which the explosive that triggered the Zaveri Bazaar blast was allegedly planted.
A computer science student, who pursued ethical hacking course, was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly sending an email threatening to blow up a news channel's office here, the state Anti-Terrorism Squad said.
Claiming it has got "very good" leads from the sketch of the suspect behind the July 13 serial blasts in Mumbai, Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad on Wednesday indicated that the suspect hails either from the central or northern part of the country.
Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad, probing the July 13 serial blasts, is taking the assistance of a foreign firm to enhance quality of the CCTV footages recorded at the three locations, a senior police official said.
Abdul Sammad, who was arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad from Mangalore in connection with an arms case and the Pune blast case, was finally released from a Mumbai jail on Sunday. Sammad, who was granted conditional bail by the sessions court almost three weeks ago, had continued to languish in jail as he could not find a guarantor.According to his uncle Muhammad Siddibapa, Sammad will have to appear in court once more and he will return to his home in Bhatkal.
"The probe, which is nearing completion, suggests that the jacket had not been stolen, but misplaced by hospital authorities," Senior Inspector Khanderao Patil of J J Marg Police Station told PTI on Friday.
Criminal lawyer Mubin Solkar has decided to defend Abdul Samad Bhatkal, the prime suspect in the Pune bomb blast, who has been arrested by Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad in a 2009 arms seizure case.
Pasha, who had earlier received training in making bombs in Bangladesh, provided training to the Mangaluru blast case accused during their stay in a jail in Karnataka.
Seven years after the Mulund bomb blast, one more person suspected to be involved in triggering the explosion was arrested in Mumbai, Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad sources said on Monday.
The Central Bureau of Investigation is hoping that the arrest of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh worker Devender Gupta, who was arrested in connection with the blast in Ajmer Dargah three years ago, might give key answers to the Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad that occurred the same year.
The Rajasthan police has arrested a man having alleged links with a Hindu militant outfit in connection with the 2007 Ajmer Dargah bomb blast, which killed three people and injured over 30 others.
The Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty with the United States has come in handy for India with the investigating agencies of both countries sharing crucial evidence regarding Pakistan's involvement in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Sources in the Mumbai police and Anti Terrorism Squad told rediff.com that the evidence that has been shared by US investigating agencies is crucial to nail Pakistan's lie.
Sri Ram Sene chief, Pramod Muthalik, whose outfit was behind the attack on a Mangalore pub. has denied knowing any of the persons wanted for their alleged involvement in Malegaon blast, a senior Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad official said on Monday.
An Enforcement Directorate official, who is an Indian Police Service officer and who once dealt with narcotics offences, has been arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad for allegedy trying to sell heroin in suburban Oshiwara.
A special court on Thursday said the application of provisions of the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act in the Malegaon blast case by the Maharashtra police was valid.After perusing the chargesheet, special MCOCA judge Y D Shinde said prima facie there was evidence to invoke MCOCA in the case.The over 4,000-page chargesheet had been filed by the ATS against 14 accused in the case charging them under MCOCA.
Himani Savarkar, President of right-wing group Abhinav Bharat and a kin of freedom fighter Veer Savarkar, was aware of the conspiracy hatched to carry out "activities" in Muslim-dominated Malegaon to avenge "atrocities" against Hindus but she kept mum, police sources said. She has admitted this in a statement given to Pune unit of Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad, which probed the September 29 blast in the communally-sensitive power loom town, the sources said.
Clearing the air on why all three top officials -- Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare, Additional Commissioner of Police (ACP) Ashok Kamte and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar who succumbed to bullet injuries -- were sitting in one vehicle, Mumbai Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria said: "Given the circumstances they sat together in the police vehicle, which was available to them."
The alleged terrorist, a final year student of a private Engineering college at Lucknow who was also carrying a prize of Rs one lakh on his head, was alleged by the police to have provided logistic supports to his co-accused in carrying out the September 13 serial blasts in the capital, besides supplying explosives to them. Mohammad Hakim, arrested by Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad, was produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Gaurav Rao who sent him to police custody.
Suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorist Salman Ahmed, who was arrested in Uttar Pradesh for his alleged involvement in several bomb blasts, was produced before a New Delhi court on Sunday that sent him to eight-day police custody.
Two officials of the Maharashtra ATS on Thursday left the special court in Mumbai which is conducting the trial of the 2008 Malegaon blast case after the defence lawyers objected to their presence.