While the Mumbai police claim they have achieved a major breakthrough following the arrests of several youth, allegedly belonging to the Indian Mujahideen, the fact remains that all the security agencies in the country have let the real mastermind, Abdul Subhan, alias Tauqueer slip out of the country.
The narco analysis test conducted on Mohammad Sami, a close aide of Subhan indicates that the police would have had Subhan in their net had they delayed Sami's arrest by two days.
Sami, who was picked up by the Karnataka police in the third week of September in connection with the Bangalore serial blasts, was subject to a narco analysis test last week.
During his narco analysis Sami said he was supposed to meet Subhan in a place at North Karnataka two days before he was arrested. IB sources say police may have rushed through the arrest of Sami. Had they waited two more days, they could have picked up Subhan, who was to meet Sami.
The IB also says that they had specific information that Sami would meet Subhan in Bijapur. However, Subhan managed to give the slip and flee the country following the arrest of Sami, the IB says.
The narco analysis conducted on Sami further reveals that he was present in Bangalore a few days before and also on the day the Bangalore blasts were executed. He, however, said (during the test) that he had absolutely no idea that Subhan was planning on carrying out blasts in the city.
Sami, in an interview with rediff.com, too had stated that he was unaware of the activities of Subhan.
Sami further reveals that Subhan had called him and asked him to send specific details about a few locations in Bangalore. These were the locations where the bombs finally went off on that dreaded day in Bangalore.
Sami repeatedly said that he was unaware of Subhan's plan and being close to him he was only carrying out orders. He also said that he had visited the landmark Forum Mall in Bangalore and collected details regarding the same and passed it on to Subhan.
Further, he also collected the telephone numbers and email ids of various SIMI members and passed it on to Subhan. Sami also said that Subhan was a smart operator. Every time he called, he never revealed the location from where he was calling. All he said was that he wanted to meet up and he used to fix the date and location of the meeting.
Even after the blasts at Bangalore, Subhan had called Sami and told him to meet him in Bijapur. However, two days before they were supposed to meet, Sami was arrested. Subhan then got wind of the fact that he was being hunted and then decided on fleeing the country.
This means that Subhan was very much present in India even after the execution of the Delhi blasts.
With Sami denying knowledge of the Bangalore blasts, it seems as though the police will have to dig deeper to find the culprit. While it is certain that Subhan played the main role in the Bangalore blasts, Sami will be interrogated further for details on activities of SIMI.
At present he is being held under the following charges -- he was a member of the outlawed SIMI; he was in touch with Subhan and; despite the ban on SIMI he organised several meetings for the banned organization.
More from rediff