ATS searches premises in Thane and Pune over arrest of techie for 'terror' links

Mumbai, Nov 12 (PTI) The Maharashtra ATS has searched the premises of a teacher in Thane and another person in Pune in connection with the recent arrest of a software engineer for his alleged links with Al Qaeda and other banned outfits, officials said on Wednesday.

The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) clarified that the searches were not linked to Monday's blast in Delhi that claimed 12 lives, but added that as part of the standard procedure, it was examining whether there was a possible Maharashtra link to the incident in the national capital.

The teacher's house at Mumbra in Thane district was used for one of the meetings by the arrested Pune-based software engineer, Zubair Hangargekar, the officials said.

The ATS nabbed Hangargekar (37) from Pune on October 27 for his alleged links with banned outfits, such as Al Qaeda and Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, and for his suspected involvement in radicalisation activities.

During the investigation, the ATS had found a Pakistani contact number saved on his old phone.

While probing further, the anti-terror agency learned that Hangargekar had visited Mumbra in Thane for one of his meetings.

Accordingly, the ATS officials visited the teacher's house on Tuesday and enquired about Hangargekar and his meeting, an official said.

The teacher is neither an accused nor a witness in the case, he said.

"We searched the premises of two individuals - one in Kondhwa (area in Pune) and another in Mumbra - and questioned them," another official said, adding that there was no connection between Hangargekar and the Delhi blast.

A search was also conducted at one more house of the teacher at Kurla in central Mumbai, sources said, adding that he used to come to teach Urdu at a madrassa every Sunday.

Talking to media persons, the teacher's wife claimed that her family members were emotionally and mentally traumatised by the incident.

Police confiscated two pen drives, one hard disk and a few chits during the searches, she claimed.

Earlier this month, the ATS told a Pune court that Hangargekar allegedly used to deliver religious discourses "aggressively" in Pune's Kondhwa.

During a house search there, the ATS seized mobile phones containing deleted PDF files titled 'Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) and All Its Manifestations', it had said.

They also recovered an Urdu translation of a speech delivered by the late Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden on Eid-ul-Fitr. In addition, a magazine titled 'Inspire' was found, containing photographs of AK-47 training at the OSG Gun School and documents detailing the procedure to make an IED using acetone peroxide from an OSG bomb school, it told the court.

The ATS had also said that during the searches, an old phone belonging to Hangargekar was recovered from one person.

"During the analysis of the contact list of the phone, five international phone numbers were found saved, including one from Pakistan, two from Saudi Arabia, and one each from Kuwait and Oman," it said.

The call detail records of the phone, however, do not show any calls to these saved numbers, the ATS said. PTI DC SPK GK NP