Non-bailable warrant issued for Anees

A Mumbai court, on a request from the Mumbai Police, has issued a non-bailable warrant against Anees Ibrahim for his involvement in the alleged circulation of fake currency in India.

The warrant was issued by Judge Thipsay on December 11 and is open-dated and would be in force until it is executed, officials here said.

Anees is facing the charge of circulating fake currency notes in the country at the instance of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). Four accused are facing trial in this case while Anees and his close associate Aftab Batki are absconding.

The Mumbai Police has been seeking non-bailable warrants as part of the collection of evidence against Ibrahim for the purpose of his extradition.

Also, despite the recent controversy over whether Mumbai Police had adequate evidence against Anees, a CBI official told Gulf News that they received his fingerprints from Mumbai and all the papers for extradition proceedings were getting ready.

Meanwhile, the confessions of five men, co-accused in the Mumbai bomb blasts case of 1993, have been obtained by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as part of the agency's evidence against Anees.

The certified copies of the confessions of the five co-accused, who have named Anees as the man who organised the training and distribution of arms and ammunition, have been sought from the special court of the Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) (TADA) where the trial closed last week, seven years after it first began.

The verdict will come only after Designated Judge P.D. Kode examines the evidence and arguments of the prosecution and defence in the serial bomb blasts of March 12 1993 which occurred after communal riots in December 1992 and January 1993.

In the confessions Anees is first referred to by Mansoor Ahmed, from Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, who says he knew Anees' associate Abu Salem Ansari very well as he lived closed to his village in U.P.

He states that on January 22, 1993, he and Salem went to an apartment in Mount Mary Road, Bandra, where they collected a bag of arms and ammunition. Salem told a woman in the house that Anees had sent some weapons to be kept for riots, Ahmed reveals.

Another co-accused Samir Ahmed Hingora says Anees was a member of his video library in Manish Market, years before the co-accused started film production and distribution with his partner Hanif Lakdawala, also an accused, now deceased. He says he visited Anees a couple of times at his home abroad. He and his henchman Chhota Rajan controlled the two major video companies in that city.

On January 15 1993, Hingora says, Salem and Baba Chohan brought him a message that they had been directed by "Aneesbhai" to see him, regarding some weapons which were to be handed to Sanjay Dutt, Bollywood actor. He says "Aneesbhai" also phoned him about a vehicle loaded with weapons and that he had to make arrangements for off-loading the weapons and for it to be handed over to Dutt.

Baba Chohan, a businessman, states he was introduced to Anees and Salem in a restaurant in that city owned by his brother-in-law Ajij Mustafa Bilakhiya, who had a car rental business in two cities. He states that Salem, who was working for Anees, asked him for a closed garage to store the weapons.

Mohammed Saeed from Jogeshwari, a western Mumbai suburb, was an eighth standard student who was taken under the wings of Anees' henchman Salim Kurla who told him that they should avenge the communal riots. Thereafter, they state in their depositions that they were forcibly taken to Pakistan, first to Karachi and then to Islamabad, for training in arms.

Usman Man Khan, who was then 22 years old, was also taken to Karachi and Islamabad and told by Salim Kurla that if the atrocities on Muslims happened again, they should be well-trained in handling weapons.

Four of them were taken for training and even taught to launch rockets, he states in the confession. Whilst on a stopover en route to Mumbai, "Aneesbhai met us at the airport, gave us the tickets and told us not to tell anyone of our trip to Pakistan or we would be finished."