NEW DELHI: A Bangalore-based doctor who was wanted for being part of LeT’s Karnataka module busted by city police last year was on Friday arrested by National Investigation Agency (NIA). The accused, Dr Imran Ahmed, is alleged to be part of the first group of the module that held meetings in Saudi Arabia to further LeT’s cause of targeting Hindu radicals and journalists sympathetic to Hindutva cause.
According to NIA sources, Ahmed was hiding in Saudi Arabia and had come to Bangalore only a few days back using a forged passport. He was picked up in Kanakpura Road in Bangalore.
NIA has already charge sheeted 15 people in the case which includes one Obaidur Rehman from Hyderabad who had helped Indian Mujahideen operatives Imran Khan and Syed Maqbool to conduct a reconnaissance of Dilsukhnagar in Hyderabad in June 2012. In February this, twin blasts allegedly executed by IM ripped through the market killing 16 people.
According NIA, Imran Ahmed alias Immu Bhai had had several meetings with LeT operatives Akram, Zakir and Furkan in Saudi Arabia to discuss recruitment, financial assistance to execute their plans and sending recruits to Pakistan for training. From the module, one Dr Zafar from Hubli had even gone to Pakistan by road crossing Iran from Saudi Arabia.
The NIA claimed that probe showed that a conspiracy had been hatched by LeT with their associates in India in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
In furtherance of the conspiracy hatched by them, the accused persons decided to kill the selected targets including prominent politicians and journalists in Bangalore, Hubli, Hyderabad and Nanded with an intention of spreading terror and communal disharmony.
The NIA claimed that the accused persons had collected arms and ammunition, as well as stolen vehicles and collected instruments for committing offences and also received funds from the co-conspirators through illegal means.
The NIA said that there were more people holed up in Gulf countries.
