Mansoor Peerbhoy (circled) and Mubin alias S K Shaikh (in black) outside the court on Tuesday 21 Operatives Of Indian Mujahideen Accused Of Terror
Kartikeya and Mateen Hafeez | TNN
Mumbai: The Mumbai police on Tuesday filed a 1,809-page chargesheet against 21 alleged members of the terror group Indian Mujahideen (IM) and charged them with “waging war against the nation’’. The group is believed to be behind a series of blasts in various Indian cities since 2005 and to have used unsecure WiFi locations in Mumbai to send threatening e-mail minutes before the explosions took place in Ahmedabad and Delhi in 2008.
Interestingly, a sanction order given by home secretary Chitkala Zutshi, which is appended to the chargesheet, says that the IM was also involved in “bomb blasts in Mumbai since 2005’’. However, it’s not clear from the rest of the chargesheet whether it had a hand in any such attack. Since 2005, Mumbai has been witness to the July 2006 suburban train bombings and the 26/11 strike. The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has maintained that the IM had no role in the train bombings and investigations into the 26/11 attack are still on.
The chargesheet painstakingly lists the manner in which Riyaz Bhatkal—a key conspirator who is currently absconding—recruited young men to join the IM and participate in the terror attacks. A part of the IM’s strategy was to spread terror through the use of its ‘media cell’ headed by software engineer
Mansoor Peerbhoy (31).
Peerbhoy not to turn approver
Less than four months ago, Mansoor Peerbhoy (in pic above, circled), a techie working with a Pune MNC, expressed his wish to turn approver in writing before an MCOCA court. On Tuesday, he stood up quietly and said in flawless English, “I don’t want to be an approver. I am withdrawing my application now.’’ No reasons were asked in court and none given. The support of his family, which has decried the media for “blowing things out of proportion’’, may have played a role in his decision.
WHAT MUMBAI COPS SAY
The Mumbai crime branch on Tuesday filed a nearly 2,000-page chargesheet against 21 operatives of the Indian Mujahideen. These terrorists (5 more are still wanted), who also have links with LeT and Simi, were arrested in Sept-Oct last year. They are named as having engineered various attacks across the country since 2005; they had sent terror emails to media outfits before the blasts in various cities last year; they had also assembled 50 bombs
There are 159 witnesses, including a 70-year-old housewife Mastermind Sadiq Shaikh, a software techie from Trombay, carried out the firing at the American Center in Kolkata in 2002
Peerbhoy visited US in ’07 to buy equipment to detect unsecured WiFi systems
Besides the media wing, IM has three other factions: the Mahmoud Gazni, Shaheed Zaqari and Sabauddin brigades to target south & north India besides VVIPs.
Accused celebrated after blast
Mumbai: The Mumbai police chargesheet against IM operatives lists the manner in which Riyaz Bhatkal—a key conspirator who is currently absconding—recruited young men to join the IM and participate in the terror attacks. A part of the IM’s strategy was to spread terror through its ‘media cell’ headed by software engineer Mansoor Peerbhoy (31).
The chargesheet pertains to cases filed with the Chembur and Matunga police stations where IM operatives hacked into unsecure WiFi connections to send a 14-page threatening mail. Peerbhoy is named as the head of the ‘media cell’ and the author of the e-mail. The group is believed to be behind several blasts since 2005 in Delhi, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Lucknow.
Separate cases have been filed against them at all these places. Some accused hosted a dinner in Pune to celebrate the success of Ahmedabad blast.
The 21 men have been charged with ‘waging war against the nation’ as well as under provisions of MCOCA and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. If convicted, they may even face capital punishment. The chargesheet says the prosecution may examine 159 witnesses to build up its case. Soon after copies of the chargesheet were submitted in the court, the accused said that they wanted to read it themselves. The police will file a separate chargesheet in the hacking case involving US national Ken Haywood’s WiFi network.
The Times of India, Feb 18, 2009
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