By TwoCircles.net staff reporter,
New Delhi: The Jaipur police has accused Muhammad Sarwar of Chandpatti village in Azamgarh district of being involved in the May 2008 Jaipur serial blasts. The police had reportedly arrested him on January 21 in Lucknow and he has since been sent to Jaipur on transit remand.
According to media reports, Sarwar, who was arrested from Tehri Pulia area of Lucknow on January 21after a warrant was issued in his name by Jaipur police, had allegedly bought the bicycles used in the May 13 blasts in Rajasthan capital, conducted recee and planted the bomb at one of the nine blast sites. The blasts had claimed 60 lives.
According to Rajasthan police, Sarwar was part of a group of 10 people involved in planning and carrying out the Jaipur blasts. Two of them – Atif Amin and Sajid – were killed in the Batla House encounter in Delhi on September 19, six days after the Delhi serial blasts. All 10 belonged to Azamgarh. The police said Sarwar’s name emerged during the interrogation of Saif who was arrested from the L-18 flat where the encounter took place. The Rajasthan ATS then obtained an arrest warrant against Sarwar from a Jaipur court. Six are still absconding.
However, his father, Muhammad Hanif, who teaches at a college in Azamgarh, denies his son has ever been involved in any such crime. He also refutes the police claim that Sarwar was arrested from Lucknow on January 21. Sarwar, Muhammad Hanif told TwoCircles.net, was picked in Indore around 9 pm on January 19. He had joined a company in the city three days back.
Giving details about Sarwar he said: Electronic engineer Sarwar completed the course from Lucknow’s Integral University last year. After that he went to Mumbai in search of job. On 14 January he got a job at Hyderabad-based company and joined its Indore branch on 15 or 16 January. At 7:30 pm on 19 he called his sister in Mumbai and said he was happy with the job and facilities at the company. But around 9 pm on the same day he was picked from a pan shop near his office.
Muhammad Hanif further said: His other son who has a shop in Chandpatti received a call on January 20. (Muhammad Hanif was at college). The caller asked about Sarwar but did not disclose his identity. On the same day Sarwar’s company called his sister in Mumbai that Sarwar was missing since last evening.
After much effort Hanif got to know from a pan vendor near Sarwar’s Indore office that around 9 pm on 19 January, a van carrying Delhi license plate came and stopped near the shop and picked Sarwar from there. He cried bachao bachao but they sped away with him. One of Sarwar’s colleagues in the office has lodged an FIR with local police station about his missing.
Muhammad Hanif also said that Police came to his Chandpatti home at 1:10 am on January 20 and asked about Sarwar, saying they had an arrest warrant against him from a Jaipur court. When Hanif said Sarwar is missing since last evening from Indore the police said they didn’t know about it.
On 21 January – the day when he was officially declared arrested from Lucknow – police informed Hanif that his son has been arrested from Lucknow.
His transit remand was taken in Lucknow and Rajasthan police took him to Jaipur.