Pune blast suspect arrested by Maharastra ATS

Abdul Samad Bhatkal, younger brother of Pune’s German Bakery blast prime suspect and Indian Mujahideen (IM) operative Yaseen Bhatkal, was picked up by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Monday morning, ostensibly for his alleged involvement in a little-known case of preparing for a supari killing.

Despite the official reason for his arrest,senior police officials told TOI that the 25-yearold native of Karnataka was suspected of having planted the bomb at Pune’s German Bakery on February 13.

Bhatkal’s arrest came 102 days after the devastating blast, which killed 17 persons. He was held soon after he landed on Monday at Mangalore’s Bajpe airport, the same airport that saw the devastating mishap on Saturday morning; he was returning from Dubai.


No senior official would come on record linking Bhatkal with the German Bakery blast but ATS insiders said the arrest followed a look-out notice — issued following the blast — at airports across the country. This is the first high-profile arrest that the ATS has made in connection with the blast.

Bhatkal was on board Air India flight XI 812 and was first noticed by immigration officials, who alerted the ATS. ATS officers then whisked Bhatkal away to an undisclosed location.

Bhatkal had left for Dubai 12 days after the Pune blast and returned after his visa expired. His father owns several properties in Goa, Mangalore and Dubai.

Officials said Bhatkal’s name cropped up in the case when investigators were probing the closed-circuit television camera footage from German Bakery; a man in his mid-20 s was seen walking into the bakery with two bags and leaving with one.

The police suspected it was Bhatkal on the footage and compared the images to the photo on Bhatkal’s passport.

The officer told that the person seen in the footage was smartly dressed, wearing a cap and walked into the bakery with two bags; but he later walked out of the bakery with only one bag. Officials said investigators had scanned photographs of nine or 10 suspects from Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Hyderabad before they zeroed in on Bhatkal. The ATS had launched a massive search operation across the country to trace Bhatkal since he left for Dubai, an officer said.

Bhatkal, suspected to be the member of IM, was never on any airport’s look-out notice prior to the Pune blast. His brother , Yaseen, is a wanted accused in the Delhi and Ahmedabad serial bomb blasts. TOI had earlier reported about Yaseen’s suspected role in the Pune blast.

Bhatkal’s profile and photograph was circulated among ATS chiefs of all states when they discussed the Pune blast case at the Centre for Police Research at Pashan, Pune, in March, the officer said, adding that the investigating agencies had not revealed the information as they were planning to nab him as soon as he arrived in India.

Bhatkal completed his schooling from Bhatkal village and studied up to the higher secondary level in Bangalore. He is fond of foreign bikes. His rich businessman father has constructed a mosque in Goa.

Officially, however, the ATS insisted Bhatkal was arrested because of a 2009 supari killing case. “Bhaktal will be booked for the case in which three persons were arrested. He supplied them three firearms that were smuggled from China,” an official said.

The ATS arrested three alleged Chhota Shakeel gang members — Haji Imran, Suleiman Mehmood alias Katela and Afzal Shaikh alias Lala (all three Mumbai residents ) — on August 5, 2009. Imran is the brother in-law of Aarif Baig, who was said to have helped gangster Firoz Konkani escape from Mumbai’s J J Hospital a few years back. Baig was sentenced to life imprisonment but jumped parole and is now absconding.

“Baig was a key planner for Chhota Shakeel in India. And, if his brother in-law is found hatching a plan, it means Baig is once again taking interest in the gang’s operations in Mumbai,” an ATS officer said.