Pune, Dec. 25 -- The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has taken fresh custody of arrested software engineer Zubair Hangargekar, telling the court that it was investigating IP addresses from Afghanistan and Hong Kong found in his Telegram account.
On Wednesday, the ATS for the second time took the custody of Hangargekar, arrested in October for alleged links with banned outfits such as Al Qaeda and 'Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent' as well as suspected involvement in radicalisation activities.
The special court for Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) here remanded him in ATS custody till January 3.
The seized electronic devices of Hangargekar and his associates revealed that they were using the ideology of terrorist organisations such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda with the objective of establishing a Khilafat state and implementing Sharia law in India, the ATS told the court while seeking his custody.
They gathered Muslim youths for 'dars' (religious instruction), initially providing information on religious thoughts to bring about a change in mindset and gradually steering them towards increased religiosity. Thereafter, under the pretext of 'ijtima' (Islamic congregations), they brought them together at Padgah in Thane, where they further radicalised them towards religious extremism and also conducted training sessions to assess their mental and physical capabilities, the ATS claimed.
The investigators came across 108 IDs in Hangargekar's Telegram account, it said. "So far, the ATS has obtained information about eight IDs, and four of them are from Afghanistan and Hong Kong and it needs to be probed," said the remand application.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.