Pragya will undergo brain-mapping, polygraph and lie detector tests at Forensic Science Laboratory in suburban Santa Cruz, ATS Director Rukmani Krishnamurthy said. The Nashik court had permitted the ATS to conduct these psychological tests on Sadhvi.
A team of Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad, probing the German Bakery blast, has left for Delhi to question the six suspected Indian Mujahideen operatives held recently for alleged involvement in blasts in Pune, Bangalore and Delhi's Jama Masjid.
Three days after the arrest of a top Indian Mujahideen operative from a village in Bihar, a joint team of the National Investigation Agency and Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad raided another village in the state on Friday in search of another IM cadre, police officials said.
Months after the triple bombings rocked Mumbai on July 13 this year, most counter-terrorism experts were willing to shove the 13/7 investigations under the rug as 'yet another case with a dead end.' However, rediff.com's Toral Varia finds that the Anti-Terrorism Squad has successfully managed to join the dots by decoding the CCTV footage. Here are the EXCLUSIVE details.
Desperately looking for a breakthrough in the city's triple blasts case, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad has extensively questioned an alleged Indian Mujahideen operative, who was arrested in a counterfeit currency case, with regards to the July 13 explosions.
Describing the Mumbai terror attack case and its trial as unique, Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Rakesh Maria said the execution of Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab is the best fitting tribute to victims as well as security personnel who laid down their lives fighting terrorists.
K P Raghuvanshi removed as the chief of Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad, said sources from Maharashtra's home department on Thursday.
They were in police custody till Thursday and were produced before the Mazgaon court, where the ATS sought their further remand to interrogate them and ascertain the identity of the 'uncle', who was instructing them from Pakistan.
Maharashtra's Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) probing the 2006 suburban train blasts, filed an affidavit in the Bombay high court today saying that it had destroyed call data records (CDRs) of all the 13 accused.
Investigators on Tuesday said that they think at least six newly recruited terrorists could have been involved in placing explosives in the triple bombings. However, there has been no breakthrough in the probe nearly a week after the attack.
Looking for clues to Wednesday's serial blasts, Maharashtra's Anti-Terrorism Squad has fanned out teams to various locations across the country and prepared a sketch of the suspect based on eyewitness accounts.
In a bid to get clues on the latest serial blasts in Mumbai, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad and the Mumbai Crime Branch have questioned a number of people including two arrested Indian Mujahideen operatives, and those having links with underworld gangs and other anti-social elements. "A number of people have been questioned so far but the exact figure we cannot tell you. Those questioned include two IM members who were recently arrested," said an ATS official.
The Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad has failed on three occasions to get Sabahuddin and Fahim Ansari a conviction in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks case.
Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Rakesh Maria on Tuesday deposed as a defence witness before a sessions court in Mumbai in the infamous television executive Neeraj Grover murder case.
Union Minority Affairs Minister A R Antulay on Wednesday suggested that Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare could have met his end due to his role in the Malegaon blasts investigation. Karkare and two other senior officers of the Mumbai police died on November 26 when Pakistani terrorists attacked Mumbai. Antulay said Karkare was investigating some cases in which there are non-Muslims also.
The Goa police on Monday made the first arrest in the Margao blasts, in which two persons were killed, when a man with alleged links to a Hindu right-wing group 'Sanatan Sanstha' was detained and searches were carried out at the outfit's office.The two victims, who were killed in the blast, were activists of the Sanstha. The police had earlier detained five members of the that which has recently come under the scanner of security agencies.
The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad claims that it has cracked the 13/7 serial blasts case. But the probe will be remembered for the many monumental blunders that left investigators red-faced, reports Vicky Nanjappa.
It has often been asked as to why groups such as the Indian Mujahideen have been resorting to lower intensity blasts over the past couple of years. The group is existent, but the gusto appears to be missing, says Vicky Nanjappa
Muzaffar Kola, accused for funding the 13/7 blasts is marked as 'wanted' in the chargesheet filed by Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad, but in reality, he lives at Jaali Cross Road in Bhatkal, Karnataka. Vicky Nanjappa speaks to the man and his family.
The Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad on Wednesday arrested two accused already in custody in the July 13 triple blasts case for allegedly lifting two bikes that were used to trigger explosions at two out of three venues.
Praveen Mutalik, an absconding accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case, has been arrested from Karnataka by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad.
Nine months after a powerful bomb exploded at the German Bakery in the posh Koregaon locality in Pune killing 17 people, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad on Saturday filed its chargesheet against the alleged mastermind of the attack Himayat Baig. Assistant Public Prosecutor for ATS A V Ausekar told judicial magistrate Swarup Bose that the accused had committed heinous crimes against the state of India.
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to order any probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation or any other central agency into the allegations by the brother of a 13/7 Mumbai serial blast accused that his family was being framed by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad.
Haroon Naik, arrested in connection with the 13/7 serial blasts here, had undergone training with Indian Mujahideen founder Yasin Bhatkal in Pakistan and sent Rs 10 lakh to him last March to carry out the bombings that killed over 25 people.
The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad on Monday claimed to have made a major breakthrough in the July 13 triple blasts in Mumbai last year that claimed 27 lives, with the arrest of two of the accused hailing from Bihar.
Rebutting senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani's charge, Maharashtra's Anti-Terrorism Squad said on Thursday there was no political pressure on it in handling the Malegaon blast probe nor was there any substance in the charge that accused Purohit was tortured in custody.
The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad on Wednesday arrested Lieutenant Colonel Srikant Purohit in connection with the September 29 Malegaon blasts, an ATS official said. Purohit was interrogated two days ago by the ATS in connection with the blasts in Malegaon and was arrested today, Additional Commissioner of Police (ATS) Parambir Singh said. Singh, however, refused to reveal Purohit's role in the blasts.
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.
S M Mushrif says, in this brief interaction with rediff.com, that he would not allow the issue of Karkare's death to die down unless and until the matter is probed.
Two suspects arrested for allegedly plotting terror strikes on ONCG headquarters and two markets in prime areas in Mumbai had received money from a Pakistani national based in Dubai through a UAE financial firm, says the chargesheet filed by Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in a local court.
The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), which arrested Pune blast prime suspect Abdul Samad Bhatkal, is probing the possible nexus between underworld and terror outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM) in the case.
The Bombay high court ticked off a special MCOCA court conducting trial in the 2006 serial train bomb blasts and the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad for refusing to provide documents relating to the Call Data Records to some of the accused in the case.
Desperate for a breakthrough in the July 13 triple blasts, the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad is now looking to question two recently-arrested alleged Indian Mujahideen operatives.
Yaseen Bhatkal, a distant relative of Indian Mujhahideen founder Riyaz Bhatkal, has been named the mastermind of the Pune blast by Maharashtra's Anti-Terrorism Squad. A blast in German bakery, one of the city's most popular eateries, had left 17 people dead and many more injured on February 13. Yaseen hails from the coastal town of Bhatkal in Karnataka and has been involved in terror activities since 1998, say sources in the Intelligence Bureau.
Yasin Bhatkal, believed to be a relative of Indian Mujahideen founder Riyaz Bhatkal, has been identified by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad as one of the main conspirators of the Pune blast, in which 17 people were killed. Indian Mujahideen is suspected to be behind the blast in Pune's upscale Koregaon Park area, an ATS source said. The ATS, which has submitted a preliminary report on investigations into the terror attack -- the first after the terror siege on Mumbai.
Earlier, Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad arrested one person from Pune for giving shelter to both the suspected terrorists.
Fringe elements of the underworld may be involved in the serial blasts that shook Mumbai on Wednesday night and claimed 19 lives. The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad has started questioning some elements of the underworld and their informers to garner more clues about the case. "A turf war has been going on between the underworld and terror outfits for some time. We believe that the underworld may have carried out blasts to step up the heat on terror networks," said a source
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.
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.