Money for Mumbai blasts routed through UAE claim ATS

Mumbai, Jan 26: With the Maharashtra ATS claiming a breakthrough in the

case, they have divulged more clinching evidence on the case when they revealed that the hawala money to fund the attacks was routed through UAE.

An ATS official who did not want to be named has been quoted as saying, "The hawala money utilised to engineer the triple blasts was routed through UAE. We have all the details as to how the money was channelized via UAE and who sponsored it."

The Maharashtra ATS had arrested two Indian Mujahideen operatives Naqi Ahmed Wasi Ahmed Sheikh and Nadeem Akhtar Ashfaq from Bihar with regards to the case. The investigators also arrested Haroon Rashid Naik, who played a major part in the money trail. Naik is currently in jail in a fake currency case. It was Naik's involvement that gave leads to the IM's role.

During the ATS' investigation they confiscated two scooters from Bihar that was being used by those arrested. ATS chief, Rakesh Maria said, "Naqi and Ahmed had already possessed two Unicorn motorcycles, which they used for a few weeks before selling them off in Mumbai.

However, the two had kept the photocopies of these vehicles' documents after selling them. The plate numbers of these two stolen motorcycles were replaced by the numbers of those vehicles which they had bought and sold. Then they submitted photocopies of their previously owned vehicles to the railway authorities at the time of verification, while transporting the stolen vehicles to Bihar."

Another crucial arrest in the case is that of 23 year old car driver Shivkumar Mensirou. He was found in posession of 2,200 mobile connection applications and over 10,000 photocopies of these documents. Arrested in a SIM card racket case, Maria spoke on his modus operandi, "After collecting the original documents, the accused provided the SIM cards to the customers. He then took out 10 to 15 photocopies of each original document." According to Maria, Mensirou introduced customers to a new scheme where customers can buy a SIM card for Rs 30 and would get free talktime worth Rs 40.

Maria suggest that some of the falsely procured SIM cards might have been used by the perpetrators of the Mumbai blasts. He added, "The telecom companies' agents have also under scanner in this SIM cards racket case."

OneIndia News