Nepalese police have secretly deported two key suspects in 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai after arresting them in Kathmandu.
Two persons, allegedly involved in the 1993 serial blasts case, were produced before the special TADA court on Saturday. While the Central Bureau of Investigation’s Special Task Force (CBI-STF) claims the two accused are Riyaz Lone alias Riyaz Khatri, and Salim Abdul Gani Gazi alias Ashfaq Ahmed Shah, the accused claim it is a case of mistaken identity.
Special Tada judge DU Mulla has sent the accused to jail custody till Monday. The judge has asked the CBI to provide adequate identity proof to the court. “The accused are claiming different names. The court has given the CBI time till Monday to provide proof of their identities. The evidence before them will be competently compared and ascertained. The CBI also will try to find people who know them,” special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, said.
The two accused were arrested in Kathmandu and deported by the Nepal government.
As per agency reports from Kathmandu, Khatri and Ahmed were arrested in Mahargunj, a residential area in Kathmandu, following a tip-off to the police. The reports say they had been “living in Nepal for a long time under different names, and operating as a manpower agent and a pashmina trader”.
Both accused — if indeed they are who the CBI claims they are — are on the Interpol’s Red Corner list of people wanted in the 1993 serial blasts case. Reports from Kathmandu say, however, that they have no records of any crime in Nepal.
Khatri was arrested by the crime branch in 1993, but was granted bail on December 14, 1995 by the then special judge, JN Patel. He jumped bail and has been missing since. Ghazi, on the other hand, has been missing since 1993.
As per the chargesheet filed, Khatri was involved in the Shekhadi landing of arms, ammunition and RDX, which was later used to bomb 12 locations in Mumbai on March 12, 1993, and led to the death of 257 people and left 714 injured. Gazi is accused of initiating some of the accused in this conspiracy and sending them to Pakistan via Dubai for training in arms and explosives.
r_menaka@dnaindia.net
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