K'taka terror link: MNC employee in CoD custody

Hubli, Feb 23: Judicial Magistrate First Class Court One Shrinivas remanded banned SIMI activist Mohammed Kammakutti alias Yahya Khan to COD custody till March six.

Sources said that Kammakutti, who was brought to the city by a team of COD, was produced before the JMFC residence around 0340 hrs today. They said the team continued to grill Kammakutti at Vidyagiri police station at Dharwad. The team is likely to take him to Castlrock, a place on Karnataka-Goa border where a SIMI meeting was held recently, the sources said.

CoD sources in Bangalore said the 34-year-old Yahya, whose original name is Mohammed Kammukutty, was arrested from his home in Gurappanapalya in this city is a father of three and belonged to Mukkam in Kozhikode in Kerala. He had come to the city eight years ago after graduating in electrical engineering from the prestigeous Regional Engineering College in 1996 and joined a Indian MNC and later joined a US-based MNC in the city.

However, he was sacked by the company a few months ago due to his 'suspicious activities'.

He was arrested by the police on Thursday night and a lap top, a hard disk, jihadi material and hundreds of books was seized from his house.

As a jobless, he became a active member of SIMI and was in thick of anti-national activities and had motivated several SIMI operatives via email. He also operated a blog, sources said.

Police have arrested four of his associates, while four others managed to escape before police could nab them. One of them is suspected to be Syed Sameer, one of the main accused in the Surat riots case. After being arrested, Sameer had jumped bail and came back to the city. He was staying with his wife and child in the same area.

UNI