Introduction: Police make claim following investigations
Police sources claim that Ghatkopar blast accused Sayyed Khwaja Yunus Sayeed Khwaja Ayub (28) really escaped and took shelter in an Ahmednagar madrassa.
Judge A P Bhangale is conducting an inquiry into the reported escape after Yunus’s father Sayeed Khwaja Ayub asked for one in court.
Police had earlier said that Yunus escaped in Ahmednagar district on January 7 while being taken by the Mumbai police to Aurangabad for questioning. They said the vehicle that Yunus and four policemen were travelling in turned on its side and the metal rod that each of Yunus’s hands had been separately handcuffed to had broken. That allowed Yunus to escape with a separate handcuff attached to each wrist.
Now, police investigators are saying that Yunus first took shelter in a madrassa nearly six kilometres from Jategaon Ghat, Ahmednagar. They are saying that investigations reveal that Yunus hired a blacksmith from the vicinity to free him of the cuffs and even managed to assemble some of his accomplices at the madrassa.
From there, Yunus reportedly contacted accomplices in Parbhani. Calls were made not by him, but indirectly through aides. The calls were made to Nebula Communications in Parbhani, where they were taken by other accomplices of Yunus, police claim.
Abeed Ali, owner of Nebula Communications, had been picked up 10 days ago for questioning, sources said.
Sources reveal that the Mumbai police later also tracked a call made to Nebula Communications from a remote place in Mumbra, Thane district. A second call recorded by police has the caller informing his associate in Parbhani that “we are leaving the city”, sources say.
A top police official, who did not wish to be named, said, “The caller was not Yunus himself. One of his accomplices called both times on his behalf.”
A raid on Nebula Communications was conducted on January 13 by a team comprising Inspector Gosalkar, Assistant Inspector R D Patil and Aurangabad police officials.
Sources said that the search party recovered several visiting cards, telephone diaries, Rs 3 lakh in cash and other documents as incriminating evidence. Ali claimed he had earned the money by selling a plot of land owned by his forefathers in Aurangabad, police said. Police have charged the five accused in the Ghatkopar blasts case under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA).
They are Sayyed Khwaja Yunus Sayeed
Khwaja Ayub (28), Mohammed Abdul Mateen Abdul Baseed (28), Shaikh Mohammed
Muzamil Zamil Ahmed (27), Zaheer Ahmed Bashir Ahmed Shaikh (27) and Dubai
deportee Imran Rehman Khan.