Man claims to be terrorist involved in recent Pune blasts; arrested for mischief

A 25-year-old Kashmiri, who allegedly played mischief with the police by claiming to be a terrorist associated with Hizbul Mujahideen and executed the recent Pune blast, has been arrested for public mischief and criminal intimidation, the police said here today. Bashir Googlu, who claimed that he and his three associates were part of the group that triggered the July 10 Pune blast, was arrested yesterday, police said. 

According to the Azad Maidan police, Bashir approached the Special Branch office near Mumbai Police headquarters yesterday stating that he is a member of the Hizbul Mujahideen.

Special branch officers had interrogated him for several hours after which he revealed names of his three associates saying that they had triggered off the recent Pune blast, the police said. The police verified his claims but did not find any truth, an officer said, adding that, "He also caused a lot of public nuisance and even threatened to trigger off blasts in Mumbai soon". 

Bashir, who hails from Kashmir, was arrested under Sections 505 (public mischief) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code, police said, adding that, "He is bankrupt and had plans to trap those who were trying to recover their money from him, by linking them to the Pune blast".