The Mumbai Police Crime Branch on Wednesday arrested two youths for their alleged involvement in the recent shooting of Arif Syed Abu Bakr,the driver-cum-bodyguard of Dawood Ibrahims brother Iqbal Kaskar,raising the number of those arrested in the case to four. Those arrested have been identified as Adnan Idayat Syed (21) and Abdul Rashad Abdul Rashid Sheikh alias Raju (21). They were produced before the Esplanade Court and remanded in police custody till May 31. On May 17,Syed Bilal Mustafa Ali and Indra Bahadur Khatri allegedly pumped six bullets into Abu Bakr outside Kaskars residence on Pakmodia Street in Nagpada. They were subsequently caught by locals after a chase and handed over to the police. On Tuesday,the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) detained Adnan and three other suspects identified as Mohammed Ahmed,Sajid Pathan and Qayyum Khwaja Shaikh. According to the ATS,while Qayyum is a resident of Mumbra,the other are from Teli Mohalla in Nagpada. They were handed over to the Crime Branch in the evening for further investigations. However,the Crime Branch only arrested Adnan. Sources revealed that Adnan,who is a cousin of wanted accused Umed Ishrat Sheikh alias Rehman,had received instructions from him to take the shooters to Pakmodia Street and point out the target to them. Instead,Adnan told Raju to meet the shooters near J J Hospital and take them to the spot. Adnan has not even seen the two shooters,sources said. ATS sources said of the three other suspects handed over to the Crime Branch,one was present with Adnan in the Pakmodia Street area when the attack was executed,another had arranged for Bilal to get a job as driver and the third was given a packet for safekeeping by Adnan and only later realised that it contained the firearms used in the attack. The Crime Branch is likely to make these three suspects witnesses against the other accused.
