The entire vicinity of the Dagdusheth Halwai Ganpati temple was swarmed by personnel of the Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad (ATS) and Pune police on Saturday after a rag picker told the police that he was offered money by two Pakistani nationals to plant bombs at the temple. Later in the evening, top police officers said the information was false.
The police blocked several roads including Shivaji Road and combed the entire area for suspicious objects. The operation began at 2.45 am and went on till 11 am. It involved 200 cops led by senior officers including police commissioner Gulabrao Pol.
The closure of part of Shivaji Road from Belbaug Chowk to Budhwar Chowk, Shalukar Bol near Shaniwarwada, road from Appa Balwant Chowk and lane in front of Jogeshwari temple inconvenienced newspaper vendors, commuters including office-goers, schoolchildren, businessmen and shopkeepers.
Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) buses on the Shivajinagar-Swargate route plying on Shivaji Road were diverted to other roads.
Though nothing suspicious was found, the combing operation resulted in panic and anxiety among local residents.
The policemen remained on their toes even after the search operation was over as a hoax call was received saying a bomb had been planted on board a PMPML bus at Alka Talkies Chowk.
Soon after he was found lying injured along the railway tracks at Daund, Imran told the Government Railway Police (GRP) officers that he was beaten up by two Pakistani nationals for refusing to plant bombs at the temple and a church. He said the bombs were timed to go off at the temple at 10.30 am on Saturday.
Rattled, the GRP officers promptly alerted the Pune police and shifted Imran to Sassoon Hospital where he was admitted to Ward no 7. Doctors maintained that his condition was stable and he was out of danger.
The city police and ATS officers pulled all strings and in a few minutes unprecedented security measures were taken in the vicinity of the temple. The roads in the area were barricaded, bomb squad summoned and thorough anti-sabotage checks started around 2.45 am. Senior officers from the Maharashtra ATS, Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Pune police rushed to the spot. Detailed questioning of Imran began at Sassoon Hospital.
Additional commissioner of police (south region) Chandrashekhar Daithankar said, “After getting a tip-off, we immediately deployed extra police force in the area. The checking was immediately started in and around the temple. The internal roads were also checked by the BDDS teams.”
About Imran’s claims, joint commissioner (law and order) Sanjeev Kumar Singhal said it appeared that he had cooked up the story. He said Imran used to frequent brothels in Budhwar peth. “He was a drunkard and was in an inebriated condition when found by the GRP. When GRP personnel questioned him about the head injury he had suffered, he told them that he was beaten up by two persons, who told him to plant bombs at Dagdusheth temple and a church for which they offered to pay him amounts ranging between Rs20,000 to 30,000. We checked out Imran’s entire story and found it to be false,” he said.
Singhal added that Imran has accepted that he had concocted the false story because he had lost money. The police have filed a case against Imran under section 507 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 for criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication.
According to the police, whoever commits the offence of under IPC 507 or having taken precaution to conceal the name or abode of the person from whom the threat comes, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, in addition to the punishment provided for the offence by the last preceding section.
Ban on illegal vendors urged
The businessmen who run their shops in and around the Dagdusheth Halwai Ganpati temple have urged the Pune police to take immediate action against illegal vendors who has installed stalls around the temple. They claimed that the authorities told the vendors that they should not put up their stalls within 200 metres from the temple.
A local businessmen, Dipak Agarwal said, “The Pune Municipal Corporation’s anti-encroachment department is not taking action against the vendors. We have written to the authorities several times, however, no action has been taken against them. If any untoward incident takes place in the future, the anti-encroachment department and Pune police will be held responsible for it.”
Temple on terror hit list
The Dagdusheth Halwai Ganpati Temple is on the terror hit list. This was revealed during the interrogation of alleged Indian Mujahideen operative Quateel Siddique. He revealed that the outfit had planned to blow up the temple on February 13, 2010, the day of the German Bakery blast. The planter had to cancel the plan at the last moment because of an alert from a flower vendor.
Police said the temple security has been beefed up and all efforts have been made to ensure that trouble-makers get no room to put their plan into action. Top brass police officers of Pune police have also claimed that in the last few months, the police have taken several efforts to ensure that the temple premises are safe. Tightening security, conducting regular reviews of the security and holding secret tests are some of them. Beside, several mock drills have been conducted by the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) in and around the temple premises.
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