Author:
Publication: India Today
Date: February 25, 2002
Pleased at the success of the CBI
in securing Aftab Ansari from Dubai, P.C. Sharma, director of the investigating
agency, spoke to Special Correspondent Sayantan Chakravarty about
the arrest and the work put in by his team.
Q. How important is Ansari's arrest
for the CBI?
A. It is important. He was emerging
as the kingpin of a crime syndicate in India. We have enough documentary
evidence to show that he has been indulging in crimes in India.
Q. Was Ansari in touch with terrorist
outfits based in Pakistan?
A. We have been able to confirm
that he is linked to terrorist outfits like the Jaish-e-Mohammed,
Lashkar-e-Toiba and Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami. In India he has committed
crimes with the assistance of these outfits through remote-control
mechanisms. There have also been instances when he has smuggled in
drugs, arms and ammunition into India.
Q. What about his links with Sheikh?
A. Yes, he definitely had links
with Omar Sheikh.
Q. What does the CBI know about
Sheikh's India connections?
A. We strongly believe that Sheikh
wired money to Al Qaida's Mohammad Atta. The information was shared
with those who needed to know it. We are examining Sheikh's role
in the attack on the American Center in Kolkata. We are also looking
into his involvement in the IC 814 hijacking as well as the legal
position of the cases in which he was arrested in India.
Q. Given that Sheikh is involved
in the Daniel Pearl abduction, is there any possibility of a joint
FBI-CBI interrogation?
A. Any opportunity to interrogate
Omar Sheikh will be certainly welcome, alone or with the FBI, should
it be so required.
Q. Ansari had a genuine Pakistani
passport. Does it show the complicity of the Pakistani establishment?
A. It goes without saying that
the Pakistani passport found in Ansari's possession could not have
been issued without somebody's patronage in Pakistan.
Q. Getting a criminal from Dubai
without extradition procedures is unprecedented. How did it happen?
A. The deportation has been a great
achievement. It was the result of painstaking efforts put in by the
CBI. The CBI team led by Neeraj Kumar planned the exercise meticulously
and executed it with the finesse and secrecy it deserved. Also, the
deportation was made possible with the cooperation of the Dubai authorities
and the efforts of our mission in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Q. How will you ensure that deportations
such as these are facilitated in future?
A. I shall raise this point at
the Regional Interpol Conference in Colombo next week. There is an
urgent need for member countries to ease the handing over of wanted
criminals by amending laws.
