Pune doctor arrested for links with IM

A Pune-based doctor was arrested for his alleged association with terror group Indian Mujahideen and obtaining two apartments for the outfit, a senior police official said on Tuesday.

The IM is suspected to be behind blasts in Delhi, Ahmedabad and Bangalore last year and other terror attacks across India since 2005.

Anwar Ali Bagwaan, a MBBS graduate who was practising in Hyderabad, also allegedly trained the IM members on how to administer sedatives on persons they were planning to kidnap, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria said.

"Bagwaan had taken two apartments in Pune on rent in his name and had given it to members of the Indian Mujahideen for their use," he said.

The rent and cash deposit for the apartments were provided by IM founder Riyaz Bhatkal and his brother, both of whom are still absconding, he said.

The doctor, who graduated from Pune's B J Medical College in 2005, was allegedly working in the same city but fled to Hyderabad, where he began private practise after 20 members of the terror group were arrested in last September.

"We had called him for questioning from Hyderabad, after which he was arrested on Monday," Maria said.

Bagwaan was produced before a special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act court, which remanded him to police custody till January 16.