By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Mumbai: A 24-year-old software engineer has been arrested by Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad for allegedly conspiring to blow up American establishments, including a school, in the city.
Anees Ansari, who was working at a multi-national software company, was apprehended from his office at suburban Andheri and produced in court on Monday. He was remanded to police custody till October 26.
News agency Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted ATS officials saying that Ansari had allegedly “hinted at a plot” to target US establishments, including a school in suburban Bandra. Ansari has been booked under section 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) read with 302 (murder) of Indian Penal Code, and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act.
According to the police, Ansari allegedly expressed his sympathies with ISIS fighters and described, in his online conversations, the Americans as “tormentors”.
“Our team that keeps a close watch on online posts some time ago got a wind of his shady activities, which suggested he had been chatting with two persons based in United Kingdom and Australia. These two have been indoctrinated to believe in the extremist ideologies,” an ATS official was quoted as saying by PTI.
Meanwhile, the ATS had also seized Ansari’s computer, mobile phone, etc and claimed they have enough evidence to prove that he was plotting a terror conspiracy. According to the police, a “lot of Jihadi material, videos and literature related to ISIS and its leaders” were shared by him on the social media, Facebook, under his ‘fake Id’.
Ansari lives in suburban Kurla with his parents and two younger siblings. He had applied for a passport about a month ago, ATS officials said, and claimed, he was planning to leave the country.