Delhi Police recorded the statement of hard line separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
Probing Lashkar-e-Taiba's plans to strike in the national capital, Delhi Police today recorded the statement of hard line separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani for giving a recommendation letter to LeT militant Athesham Malik for obtaining a Pakistani visa last December.
The 82-year-old Geelani, who was at the Special Cell at Lodhi Road for less than 30 minutes, denied having any knowledge about the links of Malik with any terror outfit and also told the Delhi Police that he used to sign at least 10 to 15 such letters everyday.
"Geelani saab told the police that the recommendation letters for getting Pakistani visas were issued only after a person had a valid passport. The passports are issued after proper scrutiny by police and other various security agencies," his son-in-law Altaf Shah alias 'Fantoosh' told PTI after the questioning was over.
Besides Shah, Geelani, whose recommendation letter's xerox copy was recovered from the belongings of Malik, was accompanied by his close aide and advocate Mohammed Shafi Reshi, official sources said.
The Jamaat leader denied having any knowledge about Malik, who has been arrested by the Delhi Police on February 29 on charges of planning to detonate a bomb in cloth market in walled city of the capital.
Sources privy to the probe said recording statement of Geelani was 'customary'.
Geelani, who had set the pro-Pakistan and hardline tone in Jamaat-e-Islami, was shown the papers and asked about his relation with Malik and who had introduced the Lashkar terrorist to him, they said.
Security agencies had received a copy of the letter given by Geelani to 24-year-old Malik who went to Pakistan last December where he received training for fabrication of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).
A laboratory technician, Malik was earlier associated with LeT in Sopore in Jammu and Kashmir and was arrested in 2007 along with two others.
Geelani's spokesperson Ayaz Akbar had earlier said, "We don't know about this case. But generally, if any Kashmiri comes to Geelani sahab for recommendation, he gives his recommendation only because they being Kashmiri. But then how can he know why he wants to go there and what his motive is?"
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