PUNE: The Pune unit of the State Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) early on Tuesday morning arrested a 28-year-old man from Dapodi on the charge of links with the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operatives in Kashmir and conspiring with members of a terror module to recruit and impart arms and ammunition training to individuals to commit criminal offences against the state.
The ATS are also looking for three other men, all from Kashmir, who, it claimed, were part of the module and facilitated money transfer to the arrested suspect to enable him purchase a cell phone and multiple SIM cards for furthering their terror objectives.
Later in the day, an ATS team, led by inspector Manjusha Bhosale, produced the arrested suspect, Mohammed Junaid Mohammed Ata, before the court of special judge S R Navander. The court ordered his custodial remand till June 3.
Special prosecutor Vilas Fargade furnished a report to the court on behalf of the ATS stating that sometime between 2021 and April this year, Junaid became a member of a WhatsApp group 'Ansar Gazwatul Hind/TAWHEED’ where anti-national and terror messages were posted with an object to incite members of the group.
Junaid used the cell phone and 10 SIM cards for creating five facebook accounts with different names for the purpose of recruitment and training of individuals in connivance with the other three wanted members of the module, the report stated.
Junaid hails from Godhnapur in Khamgaon taluka of Buldhana district and was working with a scrap dealer in Dapodi.
Fargade submitted that Junaid’s custodial interrogation was essential to investigate his involvement in recruitment, whether he had undergone or imparted arms and ammunition training to individuals by offering them financial assistance. The prosecutor sought time for the ATS to question Junaid to identify places where trouble was likely to be created in the state and to find out if he had done any recce of sensitive installations and defence establishments, among other places.
The remand report stated that Junaid was in touch with individuals in other states and investigation was needed to identify the electronic devices which he had used for maintaining communications with them.
As Junaid did not engage any counsel to present his case, the court appointed lawyer Yashpal Purohit from the Pune legal services authority to defend him. Purohit submitted that the other suspects were brainwashing Junaid and that the latter was wrongly implicated in the case. He submitted that Junaid had not travelled anywhere for the purpose of making recruitments and had no links with the LeT operatives in Kashmir. The bank account in which Rs 10,000 was transferred/withdrawn does not belong to Junaid, he added.
ATS inspector Swapnil Chavan has registered an FIR against Junaid and the three others for offences under Sections 121-A (conspiracy to commit offence against state), 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups), 116 (abatement of offence) of the Indian Penal Code and 66 (hacking with computer) of the Information Technology Act.
