The conspiracy behind the Ghatkopar bomb blast which claimed two lives, and possibly the McDonald's outlet explosion at Mumbai Central railway station was believed to have been hatched in the room of a resident doctor attached to the government-run J J Hospital here.
At least one suspect operated from abroad, either Dubai or Saudi Arabia.
Crime branch sleuths have detained 11 people so far, and teams have fanned out to faraway places in Maharashtra as well as in other states, including Hyderabad, to nab more suspects.
A crime branch team investigating the case picked up a Dr Abdul Mateen Abdul Basit from his Aurangabad upmarket residence a few days back following certain leads. It was the nabbing of an operative who revealed the plot and names of the suspects.
First was Zaheer Ahmed Basheer Sheikh, an electrical engineer, and then the brain behind the plot, Dr Mateen. The one suspect who operated from abroad is believed to be Aftab, crime branch sources told Deccan Herald.
Both Sheikh and Mateen and a third suspect Mujammil were picked up from Aurangabad.
Mateen was residing in the JJ Hospital's Old Boys Hostel and was a lecturer in Grant Medical College attached to the hospital.
His room in the hostel was a hideout for suspects to work out the plan to set off blasts, sleuths believe. Presently, he was working as lecturer in a medical college of Ghati near Aurangabad.
Both Mateen and Sheikh had in 1996 joined the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (Simi), at whom the finger of suspicion points.
However, Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal and Police Commissioner M N Singh have refrained from jumping to the conclusion and want to wait and watch the completion of the probe.
Eight more people, four of them Simi members, were picked up from Karanja in Washim district of Vidarbha, police said. The Washim police have handed over the suspects to the crime branch and they were brought here today.
Crime branch sources did not rule
out the possibility of the involvement of the same group in the blast at
McDonald's outlet. While the direct hand of Pakistan's ISI has been ruled
out, sleuths are trying to ascertain whether the group had any link with
al Qaeda or its local outfit.