Maharashtra ATS scanning Vaibhav Raut's call records of past year

The Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) officers are scanning Vaibhav Raut and two others' call detail records (CDR) of the past one year. The three have been arrested on the charges of conspiring terrorist activities in the state.

The police suspect that Vaibhav is a top operative of a larger group of hardliners having different modules in Maharashtra, Karnataka & Goa. Moreover, what has baffled the police is the puzzle over who was supplying material to prepare bombs and pistols to the group.

On August 10, officers from the Vikhroli Unit of ATS had arrested Vaibhav Raut (40) and Sharad Kalaskar (25) from Nalasopara in Palghar, and Sudhnava Ghondhalekar (39) from Pune. Raut was found to be affiliated with Hindu Govansh Raksha Samiti member, police said.

"When the trio was arrested, we had seized their mobile phones. On Sunday, too, we had seized nine more mobile phones and several SIM cards from their residences. The content of these seized phones is being analysed. We would be scanning call data records of the suspect to identify other persons associated with them," said a police officer on the condition of anonymity.

"There are more persons suspected to be involved in the group spread out in different states. The weapons and bombs seized in large numbers indicate that the group was planning something big, but their plans were thwarted by the police," said the officer.

The police had seized 20 crude bombs and cache of pistols from the possession and at the instance of the arrested persons in past one week. The police also claimed that the accused persons were conspiring to do some terrorist activities at Pune, Satara, Solapur, Mumbai, and Nalasopara.