Mateen Hafeez | TNN
Mumbai: Israr Ahmed Abdul Hamid Tailor, alias Sagri, arrested for his alleged links with banned outfit SIMI, was returning home after conducting a training session at a computer centre when police intercepted him on Monday. Though he is being grilled for his alleged role in the 13/7 serial bomb blast cases, his family says the police had been visiting their house ever since the three bombs rocked the city.
Sagri (41), who was picked up from outside Borivli railway station on Monday evening in a fake currency case, was first arrested in 2000 for being a SIMI member and has been visiting the police station every week since his release.
Earlier, on August 23, police arrested an associate, Haroon Rasheed Naik, in the case and recovered Rs 97,500 from him. Police have recovered Rs 200 and an umbrella from Sagri, which they later returned to his family.
“After 13/7, he was called almost daily to the police station,” said a relative. The crime branch had detained him earlier in April 2008 and handed him over to the anti-terrorism squad (ATS) for allegedly publishing and distributing inflammatory literature. The ATS, then headed by the late Hemant Karkare, said Sagri was not absconding and had been questioned much before the crime branch arrested him.
“We preferred to keep an eye on him rather than arrest him,” an ATS officer had then said. Sagri was subsequently released.
In the latest case, ATS stated that Naik had helped Sagri to go to Pakistan for terror training in 2000.
“Police may say anything but he was here all the time, running a computer institute in Mira Road. An ATS officer identified as Gaikwad had come to our house post 13/7 with a call record of Sagri and inquired about all his incoming and outgoing calls. He left on being satisfied with the replies,” said the relative.
The family said that Naik was just a student at the computer institute. “The local police and even IB officers were in touch with Sagri. He has been cooperating with them,” a friend said.
Sagri, a father of five, is a BSc graduate. “On Monday, when Sagri didn’t return home, we went to Borivli and Andheri railway stations and checked the accidents’ register fearing the worst. But at midnight, the ATS informed us that they took Sagri. He was earlier arrested twice but never fled the city as he is not involved in any anti-national activity. He had also complained to the Kurla court about policemen visiting his home at odd hours,” said the relative.
The Times of India, September 17, 2011
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