AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat Anti-terrorism squad (ATS) has arrested a key absconder in the 1996 Mehsana, Gujarat, arms and explosives haul case, who is known to be an aide of gangster Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar.
The accused, Abdul Majid Kutty, 58, was arrested from Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, agency officials said on Sunday. He had been declared an absconder by a Mehsana court in 2002.
Gujarat ATS stated that they went to Jharkhand after receiving information that Kutty was living there under an assumed identity. He had changed his name to Mohammad Kamal. In the December 1996 case, a large consignment of arms was seized along with arrest of three persons from near Radhanpur chowkdi in Mehsana town in Gujarat. The consignment included four kilograms of RDX, 10 detonators, 130 pistols including 115 pistols made in Pakistan and 15 made in China, 113 magazines and 750 cartridges. ATS officials said the seized explosives and arms had been meant for conducting terror activities in Gujarat and Maharashtra on Republic Day.
“The ATS had launched a probe against Abdul Majid Kutty. ATS deputy SP K K Patel received a tip-off that Kutty, a wanted terrorist, has changed his name to Mohammad Kamal, and was living in Barinagar near Telco mosque in Jamshedpur in Jharkhand. A team of ATS reached Jharkhand, arrested him and brought him here. When interrogated, he admitted to absconding in the 1996 case,” the ATS statement said.
Kutty was born in Mumbai in 1962. He had lived in Dubai between 1978 and 1984 before returning to Mumbai where he became involved in gold smuggling and theft after getting in touch with Dawood Ibrahim, Chhota Shakeel, Abu Salem, Tiger Memon, and other members of the underworld, the ATS said. Kutty used to frequent Dubai where he met Abu Salem in 1996. Salem asked him to take the delivery of explosives and arms from Ajmer for terror activities on Republic Day in Gujarat and Maharashtra, the ATS said, adding that Kutty had sent his aide Mohammed Fazal Mohammad Usman and two others to receive the delivery of explosives in Mehsana. The three were caught then, said an ATS officer.