Author: Vinod Kumar Menon and Prashant Shankarnarayan
Publication: Mid-day
Date: January 15, 2006
URL: http://ww1.mid-day.com/news/city/2006/january/128619.htm
Maulana Ghulam Yahya Ilahi Baksh (44), the
Imam who lead prayers for the past two years at the Masjid in Haj house was
arrested on Friday night at around 9 pm, after he finished rendering the Isha
prayers. He was taken in by the Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) for links with
the nabbed LeT terrorists.
Hawala syndicate
Jt Commissioner K P Raghuvanshi explains, "Yahya was part of a major
hawala syndicate that assisted in transferring money to the LeT. Ramzan, the
nabbed LeT terrorist, had met Yahya at Haj house earlier so that it wouldn't
arouse anybody's suspicion."
Ramzan, in the course of interrogation, also
revealed that Yahya was instrumental in transferring over a crore of rupees
through hawala transactions to J&K revealed a senior ATS officer.
"We have learnt the same and it is a
matter of investigation," says K P Raghuvanshi. Ramzan also informed
police that on the day of his arrest he was supposed to meet Yahya at Haj
house.
Raghuvanshi confirmed that Yahya was indeed
one of the major members of the module they were searching for in the city.
When enquired if Yahya's arrest was an end to the module, Raghuvanshi cautiously
replied, "It is too premature to jump to conclusions as Yahya's interrogation
is still in process."
Yahya's criminal antecedents
Says an ATS officer, "Yahya has been
associated with the LeT since the past five-six months. He provided accommodation
to Ramzan in Musafirkhana when he had come to the city earlier in November.
He has direct links with the LeT chief commander
Salauddin based in J&K. He was also paid a huge amount in December for
aiding terrorists."
How they nailed Yahya
ATS discovered from call printouts that the nabbed LeT terrorists had made
many calls to Yahya. Salauddin was among those LeT suspects that Yahya had
contacted repeatedly. The J&K numbers, recovered from Yahya's mobile,
have been given to the J&K police for surveillance. He has been remanded
to custody till January 24.
Special Operations Group (SOG)
The SOG that was supposed to come from J&K yesterday to assist the ATS
in investigating the case will arrive today. The team was to arrive in Mumbai
on Friday night, but had to halt in Delhi enroute.
The Imam's past
The arrested Imam is a product of the Dar-ul-Deobandh. He hails from North
24 parganas, West Bengal. He came to Mumbai in 1986 and later joined the Haj
committee office as a peon in 1996. His wife came to Mumbai only eight years
back with their children.
Family and colleagues
Yahya's wife, Mufida Begum, said, "Since the past few days the police
called him regularly for questioning. They even came to our house and conducted
a thorough search, though they did not find anything.
The cops never entered my home together, they
always entered one by one and conducted the search at around 9 pm. I still
don't know why he has been arrested." Yahya also has three children,
Imran (14), Nasreen (12) and Irfan (10).
His wife says, "My children are a studious
lot. Even my husband is a god-fearing person. We are clueless about our future
now." She added that the cops even said that in case the neighbours questioned
their presence, "to just tell them that they had come to enquire about
his mobile phone".
Even his bosses at the Haj house say, "We
came to know about this arrest only after the media report. Though he told
us that the police called him regularly for questioning, he never stated the
reason behind it."
