By TCN Staff Reporter,
Hyderabad: Syed Afaque Iqbal, an accused in Ahmedabad serial bombings of 2008, is being brought to Hyderabad by SIT officials for investigation in an alleged fraud and cheating case. The cheating case 274/2011 was filed by Tata Indicom mobile company in Abids police station against Afaque allegedly for getting a SIM card on fake documents. Afaque was arrested in the Ahmedabad blasts case in June 2011 and has since been in the Sabarmati jail.
Hyderabad city and Gujarat state police have claimed that Afaque Iqbal is a member of Indian Mujahideen and his real name is Danish Riyaz and that he acquired false identity in Hyderabad with fake documents.
However educational certificates and other documents including passport of Afaque Iqbal, which have been provided by his family to TCN, clearly tell that his real and official name is indeed Syed Afaque Iqbal, but Gujarat and Hyderabad police appear determined to prove otherwise.
Afaque Iqbal is a resident of Bariyatu near Ranchi in Jharkhand and was staying in Hyderabad since March 2008. Before his arrest on 21st June 2011, Afaque worked in several IT companies in the city, including ACS Technologies where he worked for 2 ½ months and APEX Co Vantage from October 2008 to March 2011 as a junior network administrator. He then joined EVEREST INC and worked till his arrest.
Earlier speaking with TCN his family members have claimed that they lost contact with Afaque on 17th June 2011, but his arrest was shown on 21st June 2011 from the Vadodra railway station by Gujarat police ‘while he was trying to escape.’ His family believes he was arrested from his company EVEREST INC in Hyderabad by Gujarat police and taken to Vadodara to ‘showcase the prize catch.’
Afaque who has now spent over a year in Sabarmati jail was presented as Danish Riyaz, an IM commander from the day of his arrest. Gujarat and Hyderabad police have persistently claimed that Afaque’s real name is Danish Riyaz and Syed Afaque Iqbal is a phony name.
Hyderabad SIT officers with prisoner transit warrant presented Afaq Iqbal in Second Additional Metropolitan Magistrate at Nampally. The court sent Afaque to 14 days judicial custody. Police is reportedly pitching to take him into custody to get his statement for further investigation into alleged fraud and cheating case.
How Syed Afaque Iqbal became ‘Danish Reyaz’ for police?
The family members of Syed Afaque Iqbal say either he is being deliberately presented as Danish Reyaz or as mistaken identity. In November last year, the family had told TCN in detail about Afaque and his job search in Mumbai in 2006.
According to family, in search of job Afaque had once gone to Mumbai in 2006 along with his childhood friend Manzar Imam. Both stayed at Imam’s distant relative named Danish Reyaz in Mumbai. When Afaque didn’t get right job he returned to Ranchi. Later the same year, some blasts took place in Mumbai and both Danish Reyaz and Manzar Imam were detained but released after some days of interrogation.
The family says as Afaque carries a nick name Danish, the police are presenting him as Danish Reyaz while all documents from school to college to university to passport prove he is Syed Afaque Iqbal, not Danish Reyaz.
Moreover, the family also blasts the claim of police that he was arrested at Vadodra station while fleeing on June 21st 2011. They say, the police have been visiting his home in Ranchi to enquire about Afaque since December 2010. When Hyderabad NIA and local police asked him to meet them, he had met them in April 2011 at NIA Hyderabad office. He was working in Hyderabad since March 2008. He attended his sister’s marriage on 31st May 2011 in Ranchi and went back to resume company in Hyderabad. The family and Afaque were cooperating with the Hyderabad police and NIA in investigation for over six months. The family lost contact with Afaque on 17th June 2011 and four days later he was presented before media as a terror mastermind arrested at Vadodra Railway station.
Six months after his arrest in 2011, Afaque has been charged for attending a terrorist camp in Kerala, and providing shelter to the Indian Mujahideen [IM] operatives Abdu Subhan alias Tauqeer, Abdul Raziq and Mujib Sheikh, when they were on the run after the Ahmedabad blasts. His family, however, says that these are fake allegations planted to make Afaque a scapegoat in the blasts case.
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Afaque is yet another victim of biased policing, says his family
Afaque is yet another victim of biased policing, says his family