The police in Andhra Pradesh have rejected the internal security establishment’s theory that former Hyderabad resident Syed Salim, one of the two killed in the Ajmer Sharif blast, could be one of the terror suspects.

According to the police, 45-year-old Salim was involved in a passport racket in Hyderabad and had fled to Ajmer three years ago.

Official sources told The Indian Express that Salim, from whose pocket some wires were found at the blast site, had run away from Hyderabad after police began looking for him in a passport fraud racket.

After running a check on his antecedents, the Andhra Pradesh police confirmed to those probing the Ajmer blast that Salim had no record of any terror link.

Salim used to sell perfume (itar) in Ajmer and had been living in the city ever since his escape. The Andhra Pradesh police had earlier questioned him once.

The Rajasthan police, on its part, has been claiming that Salim could be part of a larger Harkatul-Jehad-i-Islami (HUJI) network in Hyderabad and probably died while setting off the bomb at the Ajmer dargah. Their suspicion stemmed from the fact that they found Telegu newspaper clippings at the blast site.

Official sources said that nothing concrete has emerged so far in the probe and any link of the HUJI or its operative Shahid Bilal to this case is still to be established.

Rajasthan has been the area of operation of Lashkar-e-Toiba commander Azam Cheema whose name figures in the Mumbai train serial blasts chargesheet.