The Mumbai police’s crime branch, on Sunday, finally got hold of a wanted accused from Aurangabad in Maharashtra in connection with the bomb blast in a bus which took place at Ghatkopar nearly sixteen years ago, killing two persons.

The accused, Irfan Qureshi, was arrested from his relative’s house in Aurangabad after he returned from Oman.

According to the police, a team of the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) had received information about Qureshi’s presence in Aurangabad. Following this, he was detained and handed over to the Mumbai police. The Gujarat ATS had gone to Aurangabad to trace an accused wanted in another case when they zeroed in on Qureshi, the police said.

“After detaining him, they realised that it was Qureshi who was an absconder in the Ghatkopar bus bomb blast case,” said a Mumbai police officer.

“He was involved in the blast for providing logistics and also planning the blast in his home with other accused,” the officer claimed.

Two persons were killed and 39 others were injured when a bomb placed under a seat of a BEST (Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport) bus exploded near Ghatkopar bus station on December 2, 2002.

Out of the nine accused arrested in connection with the blast, a trial court had discharged one of them and acquitted eight others.

The state government has challenged their acquittal in the Bombay High Court, where the case is still pending.

According to the prosecution, the accused was the partner of a company which was shut just before the Ghatkopar 2002 blast. The prosecution held that there were a few books like the Al-Qaeda manuals which were recovered from the company and which depicts that the accused was allegedly having a role in the blasts.

Meanwhile, the defence counsel advocates, Tahira Qureshi and Yakub Sheikh, in their argument said, “Months before Irfan was named in the blast, he had started working as a teacher in Muscat. Later, when the family came to know that his name has surfaced, they had filed a complaint before the POTA Review Committee, which was headed by the joint commissioner of police, Dr Satyapal Singh. The report had come in Irfan’s favour and it had specified that they had found no evidence against him,” said advocate Qureshi. Meanwhile, the court has remanded the accused in crime branch custody till May 14.

STORY OF ARREST