The accused has been identified as Shakeel Maali, an electrical contractor. CoD PSI Mahadev Yeligar and his team picked him up from his residence at Gulaganjikoppa, Dharwad.

The suspected SIMI activist was produced before the first JMFC court judge, S Shrinivas, in the evening and the judge remanded him to the CoD custody till February 25.

Highly placed police sources said that Shakeel, who obtained a class I electrical contractor licence in 2003, was closely associated with terror suspects Asadullah, Mohammed Asif and Adnan, the absconding terror suspect from Bijapur. According to the sources, Shakeel reportedly told the police that Adnan and Asadullah always wanted him to accompany them whenever they organised meetings in secluded places, including at Haliyal and Kalghatagi forest.

“Adnan liked the biryani prepared by me. He used to insist that I cook only biryani for him,” he told the police during interrogation. Shakeel, however,  claimed that though he knew that Adnan, Asadulla and Asif, were working for the banned SIMI, he was not aware of their reported links with terrorist organisations. “I respect Dr Mirja Baig, considered as an ideologue for SIMI activists in Hubli.”

Shakeel is believed to have admitted that SIMI meetings were held at Castle Rock, a dargha near Savadatti and Halligeri. About 15 to 30 youths took part in these meetings which discussed mainly religious issues. The CoD sleuths also seized an old Maruti 800 car, which Shakeel had purchased in his name for Rs 20,000. “He said he bought the car to learn driving but he could be lying. He had also attended all the SIMI meetings held in the recent past,” said an official source.

Time-bombs

The sources said that the accused had confessed to have tried his hand at making time-bombs using his electrical engineering expertise. He got information about making explosives from a website. The sources said further questioning might bring out some more vital information regarding the accused’s links with terrorist outfits.
Some miscreants tried to set on fire the office of senior advocate I C Jalgar, who is appearing for terror suspect Mohammed Asif, at Eureka Towers here on Wednesday.