MUMBAI: The NIA and the Goa Police Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) interrogated Sameer Sardana, who was arrested while loitering around suspiciously, on Thursday, but could not establish link between him and any terror plot.
The railway police on Tuesday arrested Sameer, 44, son of retired Army officer Major General K N Sardana, at Vasco Railway Station while he was gathering information on his laptop on bomb blasts that had taken place in the country in the last few years.
The NIA sleuths arrived in Panaji on Thursday morning and questioned Sameer at the crime branch office. “We have not yet found anything during his interrogation that could suggest that he was linked to any terror plot. We will continue investigation though,” a senior ATS officer said. Sardana, who stays in Dehradun in Uttarkakhand post retirement, told a website that Sameer’s arrest was a result of confusion.
“There has been some major confusion. He has been falsely arrested and would be released soon as he has never been involved in any illegal activity,” the website quoted Sardana as saying.
A local court has remanded Sameer in seven-day police custody. The police had got suspicious of Sameer, a chartered accountant based in the city, as he was staying in a railway dormitory since January 22, extended his stay, was glued to his laptop for hours and announced that he was born a Hindu but practised Islam.
The ATS found five Indian passports on Sameer indicating that he was a frequent visitor of foreign countries.
They probe also revealed that he had worked for MNC firms such as Accenture with postings in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.