The suspect, identified as Junaid, a resident of Pune, was connected to the LeT's terror network through social media, the official said.
Mansukh Hiren, who was in possession of the car that was found with explosives outside industrialist Mukesh Ambani's residence, in a letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister and Home Minister had alleged that he was being harassed by police and media. He had also claimed that in spite of being a victim, he was treated as an accused.
Opinion on likely cause of the death of Mansukh Hiren, who is said to be the owner of the vehicle with explosives found near industrialist Mukesh Ambani's residence in Mumbai last month, is reserved in his post-mortem report on Saturday, a Thane police official said.
In an embarrassment to Digvijay Singh, Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil on Thursday said there was existence of any record of the purported telephonic conversation between the Congress general secretary and slain Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare.
Nishant Agrawal was nabbed in a joint operation by the Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squads (ATS) at BrahMos' Wardha Road facility, an ATS official said.
Nothing substantial was found about the role of two alleged Lashkar-e-Tayiba operatives in the Bengaluru twin blasts after their questioning, the Anti-Terrorism Squad said on Thursday. On Tuesday, the ATS arrested Mirza Himayat Baig, 29, who allegedly heads the LeT's operations in Maharashtra, from Pune and his aide Shaikh Lalbaba Mohammed Hussain alias Bilal, 27, from Nashik.
One person has been arrested from Nashik and another detained from Jalgaon in connection with the threat call made at the residence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan. "One Abdul Gani Shah has been arrested from Nashik. According to the preliminary inquiry, he made the call to the CM's residence from outside Dheolali railway station. We have recovered eight SIM cards from him and a diary containing the telephone numbers of several ministers," said ATS chief.
In a first, the Maharashtra government has announced a ban on two wheelers on Ananth Chaturthi, the day the city will bid adieu to Lord Ganesha. The ban will be enforced on Sunday only on immersion routes across the state.
Refusing to order judicial probe into the alleged fake encounter of one Mohammad Ali in 2006 by the state Anti Terrorism Squad, the Bombay high court on Tuesday asked the petitioner to approach police with his complaint.
The Maharashtra Director General of Police D Sivanandan has admitted that the investigations by the state Anti-Terrorism Squad into the February 13 German Bakery terror attack have gone wrong.
The special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act court in Mumbai on Saturday passed an order prohibiting the media from publishing anything pertaining to investigations in the serial train blasts here in July 2007.
Union home minister P Chidambaram has complimented the Anti Terrorism Squad of Maharashtra, the Pune police and the central agencies for the arrest of Abdul Sammad Bhatkal, the suspected mastermind behind the Pune bomb blast.
Amid reports that Pakistan may seek extradition of Malegaon blast accused Lieuteant Colonel Shrikant Purohit in the Samjhauta Express blast case, India on Tuesday virtually rejected the demand, saying Islamabad had no locus standi in the investigations involving the Army officer."The case (Malegaon blast) is under examination by the Anti-Terror Squad (of Maharashtra Police). It is our internal matter. We are investigating it. How can Pakistan be concerned with that,"he said.
The officer said further investigation and forensic analysis will be done after the mobile handset and details of the seizure are received from Tihar Jail authorities.
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.
Investigators are on the verge of cracking the July 13 Mumbai blasts case, Maharashtra Director General of Police Ajit Parasnis on Sunday said and hoped "very soon things will come out". His remark came a day after he stated the terror group responsible for the blasts had been identified.
The Maharashtra government, reeling under criticism over handling of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, has received another jolt with the widow of former Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare saying the state police force is ill-equipped to fight terrorists.
Maharashtra Forensic Laboratory will soon complete the testing of blood samples of slain Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare and two other police officers, who were killed in the terror attack in Mumbai last month, for alcohol content, laboratory sources said.State FSL at Kailna said that it has received the blood samples of the officers, who were killed by the terrorists on November 26, and the results will be handed over to the investigating authorities.
Terming the invocation of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act against them as inappropriate, Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit and Abhinav Bharat treasurer Ajay Rahirkar, both accused in the September 29 Malegaon blast case, on Saturday moved the special MCOCA court seeking bail.Purohit and Rahirkar, in their bail applications, claimed that the Anti-Terrorism Squad had no evidence linking them to the blast and that they have nothing to do with the case.
A Pune court on Friday rejected Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Purohit's plea for an extension of his police custody in the city. Purohit's lawyer Shrikant Shivde told rediff.com that the armyman had been physically and mentally tortured by the ATS, while he was in their custody.
The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad on Saturday procured transit remand for the key accused in the 2000 Kanpur bomb blast case from a local court in Mumbai.
Under attack over his claim about a call from late top cop Hemant Karkare, Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Tuesday produced a record of the conversation the slain Anti-Terrorism Squad chief had with him on 26/11 and sought an apology from Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil and all others who had dubbed him a 'liar'.
A witness who is a former army official turned hostile in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast trial in Mumbai on Thursday.
The Anti-Terrorism Squad in Maharashtra on Tuesday arrested two more persons in connection with the Thane auditorium blast case earlier this month, taking the number of arrested to four. Vikram Bhave and Santosh Angre were arrested in connection with the blast which injured seven people, a senior ATS officer said.
Exactly a year after the Malegaon blast shook the powerloom town in Maharashtra leaving seven people dead, one of the surviving victims has revealed that he had alerted the local police about an abandoned scooter, but no action had been taken.
More than 35 hours after the terrorists struck, there was a lull in Mumbai on Friday as National Security Guard commandos and security personnel closed in on Nariman House for a final assault and most of the residents chose to stay indoors.
The Mumbai ATS should investigate the blasts thoroughly and need not hesitate to have a second look at the Samjhauta Express explosions, but they should do it in a professional manner, not in a manner that adds to suspicions that the investigation has taken a pre-election political turn -- with the objective being to fix the Hindu nationalists and not to fix the terrorists, says B Raman
The special court also directed the ATS to hand over the custody of all the five accused to the NIA and also granted their transit remand to the central investigation agency, said public prosecutor (ATS) Vijay Fargade.
Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil has directed the police to probe the case of the 'missing' bulletproof vest of Anti-Terror Squad chief Hemant Karkare, who died fighting terrorists during the 26/11 attacks.
The development coincided with the Anti-Terrorism Squad filing its charge sheet in the Malegaon blasts case.
"I want to wear my uniform. It is outermost layer of my skin. I am wedded to it. I am very happy to get back into the service of the best organisation in the country if not the world, the Indian Army," said Lt Col Shrikant Prasad Purohit.
'Why is the Congress not tendering an unconditional apology to the citizens of India?'
Safdar Nagori, the general secretary of the proscribed outfit Student's Islamic Movement of India, was in Mumbai on July 11, 2006, when a series of explosions in suburban trains claimed 187 lives and injured thousands. Nagori is said to be acquainted with serial train blasts case accused and SIMI's Maharashtra unit general secretary Ehtesham Siddiqui. However, investigators have not been able to establish any link between Nagori and the serial blasts.
When the HC asked the NIA to produce the transcript of the recording of the Bhopal meeting, the agency said it was not aware if it existed.
'The caller is a truck driver from Marathwada region of Maharashtra. We have learnt that he has a habit of drinking. He has been detained along with one more person and the process to register an offence is currently on,' Mumbai police said.
'When there is a spontaneous movement against the State, it is easily crushed. But it is difficult to crush a guided movement because it has the support of activists and social workers'
Indian Mujahideen had plotted to target cash-rich IPL and one of its operatives had surveyed the Wankhede Stadium here from inside during a T20 match in 2011 but the plan was aborted owing to tight security, a Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad officer said on Tuesday.
The chemist, Umesh Prahladrao Kolhe (54), was killed on June 21, and Maharashtra police have arrested five persons in connection with the incident.
Fugitive Indian Mujahideen operative Afzal Usmani, who had escaped from a Mumbai court last month, was rearrested by Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad from Uttar Pradesh on Sunday when he was trying to flee to Nepal.
The celebrated police officer was also involved in numerous operations against gangsters in Mumbai and terrorists during his decades-long career.
