By IANS
Nagpur : Police have started interrogating Mohammad Abrar Arif Mohammad Kasim, a key leader of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), regarding his suspected involvement in terrorist activities across the country including the 7/11 train blasts in Mumbai.
Kasim, who had surrendered before a court here Jan 31 after remaining at large for 18 months, was remanded to police custody Monday.
A Unani medical science graduate from Nagpur who taught in a dental college here till September 2006, Kasim is suspected to be a close associate of Mumbai train blasts accused Tanvir Ansari, who too studied in the same college and led a fundamentalist group.
Wanted by the local police since they seized a large number of CDs containing vital information about SIMI activities from a computer shop in August 2006, Kasim absconded along with another key accused Imtiyaz Ahmed who is still at large.
The two, along with five accused named in a charge sheet following the computer shop raid under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, are suspected to be involved in the aborted June 2006 attack on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) headquarters here, among other crimes.
Police inspector B.D. Paunikar, who is leading the investigation, told IANS Tuesday that though Kasim has told them he was in Aurangabad during the last 18 months and was jobless, he has not yet revealed details of his activities during that period or earlier.
The suspected SIMI activist had left the city after resigning his lectureship and selling his house here two months before the Nov 7, 2006 Mumbai blasts.
Police sources said they want to know from Kasim the whereabouts of Ahmed besides information about underground activities of SIMI, its sources of funds and the people to whom the CDs containing details of secret SIMI plans were distributed.
Top Anti-Terrorist Squad officers from Mumbai are expected to arrive here Wednesday to join Assistant Commissioner of Police P.D. Gawai in interrogating Kasim, Paunikar said.
Though Gawai, the investigating officer of the case, left for Mumbai Monday, he is likely to discuss the line of investigations in the SIMI case with the officers investigating the bomb blasts case there, the sources said.
Kasim’s father-in-law, who hails from Pandhurna in Madhya Pradesh, is an active political leader in Maharashtra’s Marathwada region.