The focus of investigation agencies in the Patna serial bomb blasts case seems to have shifted from Bihar to Jharkhand, as teams of Ranchi Police, Patna Police and National Investigation Agency (NIA) zeroed in on Durwa area on the outskirts of Ranchi to nab suspected terrorists on Monday.
Ranchi Police along with the NIA team, was conducting raids to nab Md Tehsim Akhtar — the suspected mastermind of yesterday’s serial blasts and his aides – in various locations of Ranchi including the Dhurwa area at the time of filing of this report. The seven-member team from Patna has also started investigation in the case.
A four-member NIA team also arrived in Ranchi to investigate the involvement of four missing youths from Sithio village. “NIA team has arrived in Ranchi today. They are investigating the case and are looking for key suspects. We will be providing all necessary support to them in the investigation,” said Jharkhand DGP Rajiv Kumar.
ADG law and Order and State Police Spokesperson SN Pradhan said that the NIA team including a DIG and an SP rank officer along with two others had come with many leads in the case that would be helpful in the investigation process. “We are working in tandem with them and providing support. Intense search operation may be conducted to nab the suspects in the late evening,” Pradhan said.
Earlier, on a tip-off of Bihar Police Ranchi Police had conducted raids at Sithio village and seized loads of suspicious material from a house belonging to one Imtiyaz who has been arrested by Bihar Police on Sunday after the first blast that took place at Patna Railway Station.
Imtiyaz, a resident of Sithio village under Dhurwa area (About 15 kms from Ranchi) was caught at Patna Railway station after a blast took place at one public utility and he tried to flee from the spot.
“It certainly is the fact that whatever happened in Patna yesterday has a direct Ranchi connection. And there seems to be a budding module in Ranchi whether it is part of a module, half of a module or full module we don’t know but we have to establish but certainly it’s a critical part of the module that has executed the blasts in Patna,” said Pradhan.
“Preliminary evidence suggests that it is an IM link because Tehsim Akhtar alias Monu seems to be the person behind the conspiracy…. We had seized evidences and objects in yesterday’s raid that are used for bomb making and it establishes the fact that Imtiyaz was attached to the group since before. Ainul Ansari one of the four suspects has been alredy killed in the Patna blast. We are looking for two of the missing suspects and hope to get some success in the next 24 hours,” he added.
The ADG said further said that four of the ‘missing’ youths had gone out from Sithio village on the eve of Patna rally saying the same thing to their family members that they were going to Kolkata.
Earlier, DGP Rajiv Kumar informed that a team from Jharkhand Police led by City SP Ranchi Manor Ratan Chauthe had been sent to Patna to interrogate Imteyaz. According to officials Mohammad Imtiyaz, Ainul Ansari, Taufiq Alam and Numan Ansari had left for Patna on July 26.
Ranchi police had raided the houses of the four suspects on Sunday late evening and had recovered bomb making items including a pressure cooker, timer, detonator, black powder, jehadi literature books and other items. Father and brother of Imtiyaz were detained for interrogation for a short while but they were let out later in the morning.