Date:05/09/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/09/05/stories/2007090562811400.htm

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Narco test for blast suspect

K.V. Subramanya

Police spike reports on arrests of Bangladesh nationals

— PHOTO: BHAGYA PRAKASH K

Syed Imran Khan, arrested in connection with the Hyderabad twin blasts, being brought out of the Bowring Hospital in Bangalore on Tuesday after a narco analysis test.

BANGALORE: Experts from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) here on Tuesday subjected to narco analysis, Syed Imran Khan, a bank executive arrested by the Hyderabad police in connection with the twin blasts at Lumbini Park and Gokul Chat on August 25.

During the narco analysis, Syed Imran Khan was mainly quizzed on the consignment of explosives allegedly supplied to him by Sameer, arrested in connection with the Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad.

According to official sources, a part of the explosives consignment Sameer had smuggled into Hyderabad was used for triggering explosions at Mecca Masjid. The police want to find out what has happened to the remaining pile of explosives. Syed Imran Khan was questioned in this regard, the sources said. He was subjected to narco analysis for nearly three hours at Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital. FSL Assistant Director B. Malini conducted the test.

Brain mapping test

Mohammed Abdul Khaleem, arrested on similar charges, was subjected to polygraph and brain mapping tests at FSL. In 2006, the Bangalore police had interrogated him in connection with the terrorist attack at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc).

He is likely to undergo narco analysis on Wednesday.

The two were arrested on charges of providing shelter to Shoaib Jagirdar of Maharashtra, an accused in the Mecca Masjid blast. Sameer is said to have disclosed the names of Syed Imran Khan and Abdul Khaleem during narco analysis, the sources said.

The Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Gopal B. Hosur, told presspersons that no one had been arrested in Bangalore in connection with the Hyderabad blasts.

“Neither we nor the Hyderabad police have arrested any person in Bangalore,” Mr. Hosur said, referring to reports in a section of the media that two Bangladeshi nationals, including a woman, were arrested from Old Gurappanapalya in the MICO Layout police station limits.

Mr. Hosur said they were in constant touch with the Hyderabad police and nothing concrete had emerged so far pointing to a Bangalore angle to the twin blasts in the Andhra Pradesh capital.

He said the police have not found any “conclusive evidence” to indicate that Shaheed alias Bilal, said to be from Bangladesh, had masterminded the IISc attack here on December 28, 2005.

Mr. Hosur, who is supervising the IISc attack investigations, said Bilal had been under their scanner. A section of the media, quoting intelligence officials, had reported soon after the IISc attack that Bilal could have had a role in the strike. It is also suspected that Bilal masterminded the Hyderabad blasts too.

A senior IPS officer from Karnataka left for Hyderabad on Tuesday to gather information on terrorist modules in the two States, particularly in regard to Shakeel Ahmed who was arrested for his alleged role in the terrorist attack on the Special Investigation Team (SIT) office in Hyderabad in 2005.

It is said that Shakeel Ahmed had helped Bilal hole up in Bidar for three months in 2005. Shakeel’s two accomplices in Bidar, Azmal Ali Khan and Mohammed Barudwala, were arrested in January 2006 and they are in judicial custody.