ATS arrests man from Ratnagiri for assisting 2 suspects held in Pune

PUNE: The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has arrested a suspect from Ratnagiri for allegedly providing “financial assistance” to another person already arrested by the agency, officials said on Saturday.

According to the probe officials, the arrested man offered financial help to another suspect who in turn had offered shelter to two terror suspects arrested by the Kothrud police on July 18.

A senior ATS official said, “This is the fourth arrest in the case. During investigation, it was found that the suspect from Ratnagiri was providing financial assistance to arrested accused number 3. Hence, we had called him for questioning and after confirmation of his involvement in the crime arrested him on July 28.”

The central agency had earlier detained and questioned the Ratnagiri-based suspect for two days, he is now been sent to police custody till August 5.

The identity of the person arrested on Friday has not been disclosed by the agency. Earlier, the ATS arrested Kadir Dastagir Pathan (33) from Gondia area of the Maharashtra for giving shelter to Mohammad Imran Mohammad Yunus Khan (23) and Mohammad Yunus Mohammad Yakub Saki (24).

Khan and Saki, members of the ISIS inspired outfit Sufa, were arrested by the Kothrud police earlier this month in bike theft case. During the probe, the police found that the duo was on the National Investigation Agency (NIA) list and carried a bounty of ₹5 lakh each.

As the terror links of Khan and Saki emerged, the ATS took over probe and invoked Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in the case.

According to the ATS, the duo had fled Ratlam after coming to know that their names cropped up in the investigation in the terror case in which some suspected members of the Al-Sufa outfit were apprehended by the Rajasthan police from the Madhya Pradesh town.

They landed in Mumbai, where they stayed at the Bhendi Bazaar area for two to three days and then came to Pune’s Kondhwa area. The duo, working as graphics designer, took up jobs with the help of a local resident, the sources said.

They befriended a third person, a resident of Jharkhand, who managed to escape when the police nabbed the duo. The ATS said that they recovered a tent which the two terror suspects had procured to live in forest areas.

After their arrest, officials recovered various items such as laptops, tablets, weighing machines, parts of drones, maps, electric circuits, a soldering gun, black powder, and books written in Arabic, from them.

“During the analysis of the black powder, it came to light that it was an explosive substance,” the ATS officials claimed.

Sources said that the two terror suspects were exploring possible hideouts in the jungle areas surrounding Pune district in a bid to escape the eyes of the investigation agencies.

The ATS had said in its statement that multiple teams were working to trace the other suspect who managed to escape during the operation by the Kothrud police in Pune on July 18.