The Maharashtra ATS, which is probing the case related to two terror suspects arrested in Pune last month, has now taken into custody Zulfikar Ali Barodawala, whom the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had held in another case, an official said.
Barodawala was taken into custody from Mumbai on Tuesday and was later produced in a Pune court, where the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS). The agency told the court that he is the "mastermind" and the handler of the arrested suspects.
Barodawala was in judicial remand in connection with a case being probed by the NIA when the ATS took him into its custody. With his arrest, the number of arrests made in the Pune terror suspects case has gone up to five.
He was produced before a special court in Pune, which remanded him in police custody till August 11, public prosecutor Vijay Fargade said.
The arrestee was in touch with duo held in Pune
While seeking his ATS custody, the prosecution told the court that as per the call data records, he was in contact with the other four terror suspects, including Mohammad Imran Mohammad Yunus Khan (23) and Mohammad Yunus Mohammad Yakub Saki (24).
Khan and Saki, both wanted by the NIA for their alleged involvement in a terror-related case in Rajasthan, were nabbed from the Kothrud area in Pune on July 18 while stealing a motorcycle.
The ATS later took over the probe from the Pune police.
"Barodawala is a mastermind, who used to issue instructions and used to provide funds to the accused numbers 3 and 4 and they used to provide the same to accused numbers 1 and 2," said Fargade while seeking his custody in court.
According to ATS, accused number 3 is Qadir Dastgir Pathan, who is accused of providing shelter to Khan and Saki in Pune, while the fourth accused, arrested from Ratnagiri, whose name was not divulged by the agency, is accused of providing financial aid.
Meanwhile, sources close to the investigation said that Barodawala, with the help of Khan and Saki, had imparted training in making bombs to "some people" close to him.
The ATS has already seized chemicals and lab equipment meant for making a bomb from a place, where one of the two terror suspects arrested earlier this month, had concealed them.
The ATS earlier said that it has recovered the images of Chabad House, one of the 26/11 terror attacks sites, in south Mumbai from the electronic devices of the two terror suspects.
The NIA last month claimed to have busted an ISIS module by arresting four suspects, including Zulfikar Ali Barodawala. In the same case, the central agency had arrested Adnanali Sarkar, a noted doctor from Pune.
The suspects arrested by NIA were accused of promoting terrorist activities at the behest of ISIS, a proscribed terrorist outfit.
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