KOLKATA: Two suspected operatives of the Pakistan-backed international terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Hamim Mondal and his alleged accomplice Arpita Sarkar, had allegedly planned to carry out a terror attack during a students' protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, investigating officials of the West Bengal Police's Special Task Force (STF) said on Saturday.
The accused had also planned to arrange police uniforms so that they could disguise themselves as police personnel and carry out the operation at Jantar Mantar, STF officials said following their arrests.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference, Gourav Sharma, Inspector General of Police (IGP) in charge of the STF, disclosed the alleged plot but said he could not confirm whether Hamim had visited Jantar Mantar during the students' protest organised by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), which demanded the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the NEET paper leak.
The STF arrested Arpita Sarkar from Sahibganj in neighbouring Jharkhand in connection with its investigation into Hamim, who was arrested from Bardhaman town in Purba Bardhaman district of West Bengal on Friday morning, officials said.
Arpita, a resident of the Barharwa area in Sahibganj, was allegedly in regular contact with Hamim through WhatsApp, officials said, adding that chats between the two had been recovered during the investigation.
Hamim allegedly used Arpita to establish contacts with influential political leaders in West Bengal and collect personal information about them, officials said, adding that the two were allegedly in a relationship.
"Sarkar allegedly played a key role in a 'honey trap' network used to lure targets as part of the suspected module's activities. Our investigation suggests that the accused attempted to build a network to access sensitive personal information of certain political personalities," an official said, requesting anonymity.
After interrogating Hamim, STF investigators obtained the names of several social media handlers based in Pakistan. According to investigators, Hamim had allegedly been in contact with these handlers for the past three to four months.
The investigators said the social media handlers had close links with Pakistani gangster Shahzad Bhatti's group.
Sharma said the Pakistani group had also allegedly planned to target the Chief Minister. Besides the West Bengal Chief Minister, Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari and several senior police officials in the state were also allegedly on the radar of the accused, according to the STF's preliminary investigation.
An STF team arrested Hamim Mondal, who claimed to be a resident of Monteswar in Purba Bardhaman, from the upscale Renaissance Complex in the district early on Friday morning. He had been staying on the ninth floor of the housing complex.
Hours after Hamim's arrest, while speaking to reporters at the state secretariat, Nabanna, on Friday, Suvendu said, "It is an extremely sensitive case involving national security and that investigators were analysing data recovered from the accused's electronic devices."
"There are international links. It concerns national security. The STF is investigating the case and examining the information recovered from his mobile phone and other electronic devices," he told reporters.
Significantly, the STF seized several important documents allegedly related to the Chief Minister's regular movements, route maps, security schedules and mobile phones from the accused.
Police suspected that Hamim might have been keeping watch on the Chief Minister's movements.
Sources said Bhatti's network is allegedly involved in cross border drug smuggling operations backed by Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).
Hamim had been employed at a garments unit in Howrah's Pilkhana area, where he tagged ready made clothes with barcodes, before leaving the job ahead of this year's Assembly elections and shifting to Bardhaman, where he rented an apartment in the upscale housing complex.
According to preliminary investigations, Hamim might have also stayed in a rented flat in New Town on the outskirts of Kolkata before shifting to Howrah. Suvendu's residence is close to the locality where he had allegedly stayed in New Town.
Investigating officials also suspected that the accused might have had detailed knowledge of when the Chief Minister left his residence and the routes he regularly used.
On February 14, 2019, a suicide bomber belonging to the Pakistan based Jaish-e-Mohammed rammed an explosives laden vehicle into a Central Reserve Police Force convoy in Pulwama, Jammu and Kashmir, killing 40 personnel.
The probe has also expanded to examine whether Hamim had any role in the recent threats allegedly received by Minister of State and BJP leader Umesh Rai, who hails from Howrah.
Rai had complained to police that he received extortion calls from a person claiming links with a "Pakistani agency" and was threatened with his son's kidnapping. He also alleged that the caller had sent photographs of the BJP office and warned of an attack on the premises.
Purba Bardhaman has figured in major terror investigations in the past. In October 2014, an accidental explosion at a house in the Khagragarh area of Burdwan exposed an alleged terror module linked to the banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
