Techie Barodawala mastermind behind terror plot: ATS
A day after his arrest on Tuesday, the ATS produced Barodawala in court of additional sessions VR Kachare, which granted him custody till August 11
The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Wednesday claimed that the arrested suspect Zulfikar Ali Barodawala is the “mastermind” who was instructing the other terror suspects and funding them.
A day after his arrest on Tuesday, the ATS produced Barodawala in court of additional sessions VR Kachare, which granted him custody till August 11.
An IT engineer by profession, Barodawala was working at a Mumbai-based firm having its office in Pune. According to the probe officials, the techie was staying in Pune since last few years, before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested him on July 3 for his alleged links with ISIS’ Maharashtra module.
On Tuesday, the ATS told the Mumbai Sessions Court that they have established strong links of Barodawala to the Pune case involving arrest of two terror suspects and demanded his custody. Barodawala was lodged at Arthur Road jail in Mumbai and probed by the NIA in an ISIS module case.
Public Prosecutor Vijay Fargade said, “The ATS has informed the court that the agency suspects Barodawala was the mastermind behind the terror plot planned by the other arrested suspects. While seeking the custody, the central agency has provided call conversations among the arrested suspects.”
According to Fargade, the ATS wants to investigate on whose instructions Barodawala was carrying out the operation.
An ATS officer requesting anonymity said that the probe has so far established money trail between Barodawala and two suspects SN Kazi and Kadir Dastagir Pathan who then passed on the money to other two suspects Mohammad Imran Mohammad Yunus Khan and Mohammad Yunus Mohammad Yakub Saki.
“This shows how Barodawala was involved in terror funding,” the prosecution told the court.
The ATS also suspected that Barodawala was given the responsibility to recruit members of sleeper cell and, as a part of it, he recruited four suspects “to execute a terror plot”. In the court, the ATS demanded custody of Barodawala to investigate about his operation and who others he had recruited from Maharashtra.
Khan and Saki, members of the ISIS inspired outfit Sufa, were arrested by the Kothrud police in a bike theft case on July 17. During the probe, the police found that the duo was on the NIA list and carried a bounty of ₹5 lakh each.
On July 3, the NIA had busted a Maharashtra-based ISIS module by arresting four suspects for promoting terrorist activities. The suspects were identified as Tanish Nasser Siddiqui from Nagpada Mumbai, Zubair Noor Mohammed Shaikh alias Abu Nusaiba from Kondhwa and Sharjeel Shaikh and Zulfikar Ali Barodawala from Padgha Thane.
The ATS have arrested IT engineer SN Kazi (27) from Ratnagiri district for his alleged involvement in providing financial assistance to the arrested accused and Kadir Dastagir Pathan (33) from Gondia for giving shelter to Khan and Saki.
As the terror links of Khan and Saki emerged, the ATS took over the probe and invoked Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in the case.
