3rd blast suspect arrested in Ranchi, probe given to NIA

A third suspect in connection with the Patna serial blasts was today arrested from Ranchi by the NIA which has taken over the probe even as one more person was detained for questioning.

The condition of the prime suspect Ainul alias Tarique, meanwhile, was critical with doctors saying his chances of survival were dim, dashing hopes of investigators to get vital inputs about the Sunday explosions that killed six people.

Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said the Patna serial blasts case has been handed over to the National Investigation Agency(NIA) after the Nitish Kumar government made a request in this regard.

Patna's Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) Director Arun Kumar Singh told PTI that Tarique is on life support system. Tarique has splinters in his brain and there is little chance of his survival, he said.

Assisted by Ranchi police, NIA sleuths arrested one Ujjair Ahmad in the afternoon, police sources in the Jharkand capital said.

Two other suspects, identified as Tausim and Imtiaz Ansari, were arrested soon after the bomb blasts in the Bihar capital.

Jharkand DGP Rajeev Kumar yesterday told reporters in Hazaribagh that six persons were detained for interrogation in connection with the serial blasts set off in and around the Gandhi Maidan ahead of the rally addressed later by BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.

One of them was Arshad Ahmad who was picked up for questioning from a village in Bihar's East Champaran district, police said.

Acting on a tip-off by the Patna Police and the NIA, the local police yesterday picked up Ahmad from Alauli village and handed him over to an investigation team from Patna, the Superintendent of Police (SP) Vinay Kumar said.

Ahmad, said to be an associate of the serial blasts' prime accused Imtiyaz Ansari, an alleged Indian Mujahideen (IM) operative, was then taken to the state capital by a Patna police team for questioning, Patna's Superintendent of Police (SP), City, Jayant Kant said.

The suspect was presently in NIA's custody and being interrogated about his alleged role in the serial blasts, he said.

Ahmad was rounded up for questioning in connection with the serial blasts after his phone figured in a list of contacts of Ansari, who was arrested soon after the first blast at a toilet on platform number 10 at the railway junction, police said.