BHUBANESWAR: Four members of the Khandwa module of SIMI, part of the eight operatives that broke out of Central Jail at Bhopal before being killed in an encounter under mysterious circumstances on Monday morning, were arrested from Rourkela earlier this year in a joint operation by the Special Tactical Unit (STU) of Odisha and Telangana Police.
Zakir Hussain Sadiq, Amjad, Md Saliq and Sk Mehboob were nabbed from a hide-out in Rourkela on February 17. The Madhya Pradesh Police took them on remand on March 10.
The Khandwa unit members had close connection with the Ranchi module of SIMI. While the former unit operated in a small group of about six and was allegedly involved in 17 cases of terror blasts, murder of policemen and bank heist over the last 4 years in Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and UP, the Ranchi unit carried out high-profile blasts in the country including two in Bihar’s Bodh Gaya and Patna in 2013.
The Bodh Gaya blasts in July 2013 was of low intensity in nature but in October, the Ranchi module triggered a series of blasts at Gandhi Maidan in Patna where Narendra Modi had attended a public meeting. At least six persons had died in the blasts at the public meeting. The Special Task Force of Odisha Police, which interrogated the four, had found out that the Khandwa unit carried out a loot at Mannapuram Gold Finance’s Bhopal branch in August 2010 during which they decamped with 12 kg of the yellow metal.
Although the MP Police later arrested them, they could recover about 6.2 kg of gold while the rest were allegedly spent. During investigation, it was found that a part of the gold was shared with the Ranchi module which later carried out the serial blasts at Bodh Gaya and Gandhi Maidan in Patna in 2013.
Head of the Khandwa group Abu Faisal, alias Doctor who is currently in Bhopal Jail, enjoyed great rapport with Haider Ali of Ranchi module. Ali is a key accused in both the Bodh Gaya and Patna blasts and is currently facing trial.
After escaping from Khandwa prison, the group had briefly stayed at Sambalpur drawing the MP Police on their trail but in vain. Investigation had revealed that the group had killed a policeman and a home guard in Suryapet in Nalgonda district of Telangana during a police interception on April 1, 2015. A day later in an encounter, two of the members Md Aslam and Md Aijazuddin were killed.
The rest four, however, kept moving across the country and are believed to have travelled to 14 States where they used as many as 18 hideouts which were later identified by IB. They moved to Rourkela last year after using connection of an associate from the Ranchi module. They used Rourkela as a shelter ground for about six months.
While they frequently changed their locations and used both Hindu and Muslim identities, the four were trying to get a fresh identity at Rourkela when they were nabbed.
Naveen Sahu, a local insurance agent, who had provided fake PAN card to one of the four, was also arrested by the Odisha-Telangana Police along with Nazma Biwi, mother of Mehboob. Soon after their escape on Monday morning, State Police had alerted all the police stations to remain alert and moved their photographs. Special DG, Crime Bijay Sharma said, Nazma and Naveen will continue to face trial after the death of the four.