Date:30/01/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/01/30/stories/2008013054510700.htm

Karnataka

Chance questioning led to the arrest of man with LeT links

Staff Correspondent

He was among the two held on that day at H. Kadadakatte village

DAVANGERE: It was the presence of mind of two policemen that resulted in the arrest of two persons, one of whom had links with Lashkar-e-Taiba and was trained in Pakistan in manufacturing explosive devices.

F.G. Malagi and K.S. Talwar had gone to the gram panchayat office at H. Kadadakatte village to get a certificate.

They saw the two, Ziyauddin Nasir (22) and Asadullah Abubakar (22), who were on a motorcycle on their way to Hubli, stopping the vehicle as the helmet they had placed in the rear of the motorcycle fell on the ground accidentally.

Talwar who noticed the two carrying three helmets grew suspicious and immediately rushed to the spot and asked them why they were carrying three helmets. When he did not get a proper answer from them, he asked them to show a bag they were carrying.

When he forcibly opened the bag, he saw many number plates in it.

He immediately caught the two but Assadulla managed to escape.

However, with the help of villagers, he managed to catch Assadulla again and the police constables locked them inside the panchayat office situated nearby.

They informed the sub-inspector of the incident. Immediately, the sub-inspector came to the spot in a jeep and took the two to the police station.

Meanwhile, Ziyauddin Nasir (earlier he had given different names to the police) reportedly destroyed not less than four SIM cards and various other documents.

He also hid a sophisticated button knife on the ventilator of the toilet which the police subsequently recovered.

The police also found a broken SIM card in the toilet drain.

Asadullah, the police said, destroyed an ATM card while being taken to the police station from the panchayat office.

According to the police, Assadullah discarded the broken card in the police jeep. The jeep driver noticed the broken pieces of the ATM card while he was cleaning the jeep and handed them over to his higher officers.