JM Road blasts: 2 booked for forging documents to purchase SIM cards

The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has booked two suspects in JM Road serial bomb blasts for allegedly forging documents to purchase pre-paid SIM cards used to execute the terror act.

Feroze alias Hamza Abdul Hamid Syed, 38, a resident of Shukrawar Peth and Irfan Landage, 30, a resident of Mukundnagar, Ahmednagar, were produced before Judicial Magistrate First Class Swaroop Bose who remanded them in seven-day police custody on Thursday. The two has been booked for forgery under Sections 467, 471, 474 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code.

Syed and Landage had been earlier remanded in judicial custody by a special court in Mumbai, and lodged in Mumbai's Arthur Road Central Prison. On Wednesday, ATS obtained a production warrant to produce them in court.

Milind Gaikwad, inspector, ATS, Pune unit, said, "ATS needs to investigate how Syed and Landage procured SIM cards by using fake documents. We also need to find if they obtained some other SIM cards using forged documents. The owner and the assistant of the shop from where the cards were purchased are out on bail and have agreed to co-operate in the investigations. We want to investigate if the suspects used fake SIM cards to commit any other crime."

In November 2012, the ATS had arrested Ganpat Garg, owner of Narsimha and Hari Om Sales at Dighi, and his employee Idbal Khan for allegedly selling SIM cards on forged documents.

The ATS seized 140 SIM cards, 78 photographs and election identity cards from Garg's shop. The agency alleged that Garg illegally kept photo copies of identity cards, address proofs and photographs provided by genuine customers and misused them to sell SIM cards.

Advocate M M Syed was the defence lawyer for Syed while advocates Shahid Akhtar, Kainat Shaikh and Sikandar Shaikh defended Landage.

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