The UP Police claimed that they arrested the three HuJI activists from West Bengal with the help of the local police, brought them here, recovered the explosives they had hidden near SGPGI, and then booked them under the Explosives Act and the Unlawful Activities Act.

The authorities in West Bengal have a account to relate. Swarup Kumar Saha of Special Operations Group, CID, West Bengal, said: “We arrested Ajijur near his house in Biramnagar (in the 24 North Parganas) on June 22, 2007. He was sent to judicial custody. Later, the Uttar Pradesh police came with a production warrant against him and took him away.”

On September 8, 2008, the UP police filed the chargesheet against the three men including Ajijur. The case diary mentions that during interrogation, Ajijur told the police that his elder brother Shahjahan alias Mirzabar was staying in Bangladesh and that he knew Asif Raza — the main accused in the Partho Roy Burman kidnapping case in Kolkata — who died in the hands of the Gujarat Police in 2001.

Ajijur also told the police that he collected the money and items which his brother sent for HuJI operatives in India, and handed these over to Babu Bhai. The record adds that Ajijur had that confessed he knew Babu Bhai for long.

No Uttar Pradesh police officer, including the SSP of the Special Task Force Amitabh Yash and the DIG of Anti-Terror Squad Rajiv Krishna commented on the discrepancy in the stories of the Lucknow police and the Bengal police.

... contd.