For over a week now, Crime Branch officials have been grilling a man, who they say, led them to Lashkar-e-Taiba’s Mumbai chief Faizal Ataur Rehman Sheikh and its city module. A librarian at a research foundation’s office in the city, Feroz Deshmukh (29) has still not been arrested. Crime Branch officials say they will hand him over to the Anti-Terrorist Squad, which is probing Terrible Tuesday’s serial blasts, in a couple of days. Deshmukh is a close associate of Raheel Abdul Rehman Sheikh (24), one of the prime suspects in the Aurangabad arms haul case and now on the run, say sources. | “When we were interrogating him, he asked us why we were asking him so many questions about Raheel, when a bigger catch would be Faizal...” |
Before zeroing in on Faizal and his software programmer brother Muzamil, the Crime Branch had picked up Unani doctor Tanveer Ahmed Ansari, Sohail Abdul Ghani Sheikh and Zamir Ahmed Latif Chaabiwala—all of whom are now in police custody and are said to be members of Lashkar’s Mumbai module. "Deshmukh knows Sohail and Chaabiwala to some extent," a Crime Branch officer says.
"During interrogation, he told us that he was very close to Raheel, who also stayed at Grant Road, and has met him on several occasions. He has often chatted with Raheel on the internet. Information provided by Deshmukh may be crucial in getting to Raheel. We believe Raheel is somewhere in Bangladesh," says a Crime Branch officer. Raheel is believed to have provided fake passports to Lashkar operatives, and procured visas on the basis of forged documents for travel to Pakistan via Iran. He is wanted in the Aurangabad arms haul case along with two other Lashkar operatives—Zaibuddin Sheikh alias Zaby and Fayaz Kagdi, both of whom are also on the run.