Though the Bangalore cops had claimed him to have been arrested only yesterday, his family has a different story. His father N N Beerankutty says Yahya had stayed for a fortnight at his family home in Kozhikode until February 17, to look up the work on a small house he was building there. He left for Bangalore on February 18, and the next day, four men, claiming to be from the Intelligence Bureau, turned up at his Bangalore home, while he was having lunch. They said they wanted to sort out some papers, and took him away in front of his wife and three kids, according to Beerankutty.

Beerankutty reached Bangalore the next day with some friends to look for his son. Since the police there could not say where he was, Beerankutty returned to Kozhikode today morning. Beerankutty claims to have been thinking of moving a habeas corpus petition to trace him, when he finally got to know of Yahya’s arrest this morning.

Coming from a middle-class, deeply religious Muslim family in the village, his neighbours say they have no clue of his activities after he moved to Bangalore 12 years ago. “He is a devout Muslim given to praying five times a day, like all of us in our family. He had always been an introvert, shy, studious and softspoken, and had never got into any kind of trouble. No one will believe he has anything to do with militancy,” insists Beerankutty.

... contd.