13/7 blasts: Hawala operator held in Delhi

A suspected hawala operator, who allegedly handed over Rs 10 lakh to fugitive Indian Mujahiddin operative Yasin Bhatkal for executing the July 13 triple blasts that killed 27 people in Mumbai, has been arrested from Delhi, the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad said on Tuesday.

"In a joint operation with Delhi Police's special cell, the main hawala operator, Kanwar Nain Wazeer Chand Patrija, 42, who hails from Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, was arrested from Delhi on Tuesday and brought to Mumbai," Maharashtra ATS chief Rakesh Maria said.

"Patrija had facilitated the payment used for commissioning the blasts. He was produced before a court today which remanded him in police custody till February 9," the ATS chief said.

Patrija, who runs a jewellery shop named Jyoti Jewellers in a rented premise in Chandni Chowk in Delhi, had handed over Rs 10 lakh in cash to Bhatkal and the entire money was used to trigger the coordinated explosions, Maria said.

Patrija, who is the third person to be arrested in connection with the blasts, had received instructions from abroad following which he gave the cash to Bhatkal early last year outside his shop, Maria said, refusing to disclose the location where Bhatkal and the arrested accused had met.

RBT Patrija's arrest came in the backdrop of the ATS on June 23 claiming a breakthrough with the arrest of two alleged Indian Mujahideen operatives, namely Naqi Ahmed Wasi Ahmed Sheikh, 22, and Nadeem Akhtar Ashfaq Sheikh, 23, originally from Bihar's Darbhanga district, who already were in the ATS custody in connection with a forgery case, while manhunt for Bhatkal still continues.

Throwing more light on the investigations that led to Patrija's arrest, Maria said an ATS team was specially formed to blaze the financial trail that led to the blasts.

The agency sleuths worked round-the-clock since last August to unravel how the money had been exchanged to trigger the explosions.

According to sources, with the arrest of Haroon Rashid Naik, currently in jail in a fake currency case, the investigators stumbled upon the money trail in the blasts and zeroed in on IM as the perpetrators of the terror attack. Naik was held on August 22 last year.

The transit remand application had already been moved in a court which may grant custody of Naik in the blasts case on Wednesday, he added.

Naik was suspected to have been involved in hatching the conspiracy and providing financial aid to the accused, Maria said without elaborating further.

"Our team has meticulously studied on each and every information they received at different stages of investigations and uncovered the entire financial trail of the case.

"We have ample evidence to prove Patrija's role in hawala transactions. Without money, it would have become very difficult to commence the crime. So, finance part in the case has been thoroughly probed and we know all the details as how the money was exchanged and to whom," the ATS chief said.

He also said that it would take help of other financial investigating agencies to speed up the probe into the blasts.

"We have taken a lot of care before touching this person (Patrija). We have cogent evidence to prove his role," said Maria when told about how investigators failed to prove roles of hawala operators in previous instances of crime which resulted into the accused walking free.

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