Mumbai (PTI): Afzal Usmani, the suspected mastermind and founder member of Indian Mujahideen, was the key link in providing vital information about other members of the terrorist outfit, police said on Friday.

Usmani went to Gujarat after stealing vehicles from Navi Mumbai on July 7 and rented a hotel room along with other wanted accused — Kisan Vanzari and Amin Shah, a senior Crime Branch official said.

"Usmani and the others took a room in Shrinath Hotel in Valsad district (Gujarat) where he registered under a false name but wrote down his original mobile number," the official said.

He had registered two of his mobile numbers along with the vehicle number (GJ6CD3569) when he checked in, he said.

Also, Usmani received several calls at the same time, in which he revealed his next destination, that helped the Mumbai Crime Branch track him, leading to his arrest at a railway station near Azamgad in Uttar Pradesh, while trying to board a train, the official added.

The police are still on the look out for Vanzari and Shah, who had also stolen vehicles from Navi Mumbai and are suspected to be involved in the recent blasts at Delhi and Ahmedabad.

The trio had checked into the hotel on July 9 at around 11 pm and had checked out the next morning. They had cited their visit as a business one and their nationality as Indians.

On Wednesday, the police had arrested five persons — Afzal Mutahib Usmani, Mohammad Saddik Shaikh, Mohammad Aarif Shaikh, Ahmed Zakir Shaikh and Shaikh Mohammad Ansari for their involvement in Delhi, Ahmedabad and all other blasts across the country since 2005.

Joint Commissioner of police (Crime) Rakesh Maria had said that three of these accused had conducted a survey of Mumbai in August 2008 in order to identify possible places for terrorist attacks.

The Thane Crime Branch had arrested four more persons on Thursday from Mumbra for aiding Aarif in connection with the blasts.

The four — identified as Riyaz Ahmed, Naved Qureshi, Rashid Sheikh and Farooq Sheikh, all hailing from Mumbra area in Thane — had allegedly aided Aarif in finding a house in their locality.

The five arrested by the Mumbai Crime Branch had been remanded to police custody till October seven and the four arrested yesterday have been remanded to police custody for a week.

Related stories