By TwoCircles.net Staff Correspondent,
Kozhikode: Naseer and Shafas, the Keralites caught in Bangladesh, have been remanded to 14 days’ police custody by a local court in Bengaluru. The men were brought to Bengaluru for questioning last night. A team led by Bengaluru city Assistant Police Commissioner Om Kare brought the two men from Meghalaya to Bengaluru last night.
Thadiyantavide Naseer and his relative Shafas were arrested by the Bangladesh police reportedly on November 6 from Chittagong.
Naseer is the third accused in the controversial Kerala-Kashmir terror case in which young men from Kerala were taken to Kashmir for terrorist activities. He is also one of the prime accused in the Bengaluru bomb blast case. Shafas is reported to have helped Naseer in his deeds. Both have been found absconding for the past couple of months.
Both the men were presented before the magisterate last night itself. The police might take Naseer to the house at Bommasandra in Hosur road to collect evidence. Naseer has reportedly stayed in the house with Sarfaras Navas, who has been caught earlier in connection with the blast case.
A six-member team of the Kerala police led by SP Raju who heads the special team to investigate the terror case also has reportedly reached Bengaluru to question the two men. North Zone IG Tomin J Thachankari too is reported to reach Bengaluru today.
The authorities were initially reluctant to confirm the arrest of the two Indians in Bangladesh even after the media began to report news about the incident. The central government confirmed it only last day when Union Home Secretary GK Pillai stated it in a press conference. The neighbouring countries also signed an agreement for the transfer of criminals the same day. It was known that the men were handed over to India whose arrest was then registered in the Meghalaya border.
The Kerala police began to search for Naseer when it was found that he was the person who helped young men from Kerala to go to Kashmir for terrorist activities. Naseer is accused in several cases in the state like the attempt to murder former Chief Minister EK Nayanar and the controversial case of setting ablaze a bus of the Tamil Nadu Transport Corporation. However, he was not reportedly arrested in the cases even though he was present in Kannur, his home town in north Kerala. The police tried to arrest him only when the Kerala-Kashmir terror case came up as four Keralites were killed in encounter with the army in the Kashmir valley in November 2008.
However, Naseer was found absconding even after many others accused in the case were arrested. It is analysed that the arrest of Naseer, the third accused, would shed more light into the controversial case.