13/7 blasts: ATS granted custody of IM operative

The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad, probing the July 13 triple blasts case, was today granted the custody of jailed Indian Mujahideen operative Haroon Naik, accused of participating in a criminal conspiracy and providing financial aid to carry out the terror strikes, till February 10.

Naik, who is currently lodged in Taloja jail on the outskirts of the city in a fake currency case, is the fourth person to be arrested in connection with the case.  He was apprehended on August 22 for allegedly possessing fake currency to the tune of Rs 80,000 from here.

It was with Naik's arrest that the investigating agency stumbled upon the money trail in the July 13 triple blasts and zeroed in on IM as perpetrators. Naik was today produced before the court of local metropolitan magistrate after the ATS had sought his custody in the blasts case.

The IM operative is suspected to have been in contact with several other IM members and the probe agency wants to investigate about his links, sources said. Terror struck Mumbai on July 13 last year when three near-simultaneous blasts ripped through crowded areas in the city.

The first explosion rocked Zaveri Bazar, a bustling jewellery market, at 6.50 pm and a minute later another blast shook the busy business area Opera House. A third blast ripped through crowded Dadar area in Central Mumbai at 7.04 pm.

On Monday, a suspected hawala operator Kanwar Nain Wazeer Chand Patrija (42), who allegedly handed over Rs 10 lakh to fugitive IM top operative Yasin Bhatkal to execute the blasts that killed 27 people, was arrested from Delhi, police said.