Software engineer held by ATS had Pakistani contact number in old phone: Court told

Pune, Nov 4 (PTI) A software engineer arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in Pune last week had a Pakistani contact number saved on his old phone, the prosecution told a local court on Tuesday.

Zubair Hangargekar (37), who had been under ATS surveillance, was arrested 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.

The prosecution also told the court Hangargekar used to deliver religious discourses "aggressively" in Kondhwa area of Pune, and that it wants to verify how many youths were radicalised through this activity.

After his police custody ended on Tuesday, Hangargekar was produced before a special Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act court in Pune, and his custody was extended till November 14.

Seeking his further custody, the prosecution told the court that during a house search, the ATS seized mobile phones containing deleted PDF files titled "Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) and All Its Manifestations." They also recovered an Urdu translation of a speech delivered by 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, the ATS told the court.

The prosecution said the ATS has sent a questionnaire to High Energy Materials Research Laboratory (HEMRL), a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) lab, seeking more information on the bomb-making procedure described in the "Inspire" magazine, and their reply is awaited.

The prosecution also told the court 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 prosecution further informed the court that the call detail records of the phone, however, do not show any calls to these saved numbers.

The prosecution also told the court that Hangargekar used to deliver religious discourses "aggressively" in Kondhwa area of the city, where he conducted quiz competitions.

"The ATS wants to verify how many youths were radicalised through this activity. Besides this, it was also revealed that after Hangargekar's arrest, some books, documents and certificates from the discourse venue in Kondhwa were shifted to the Kale Padal area, where they were burnt in an open space by one person," the prosecution told the court.

It said that the half-burnt documents have been recovered from the spot and sent to the forensic lab for further analysis. PTI SPK NP