AHMEDABAD: A chargesheet lodged in recent times in an Ankleshwar court by the Gujarat ATS in response to put off attack on PM Modi.
“Yeah, let’s take out Modi with a sniper rifle.” Gujarat ATS has attributed this statement to a follower of an alleged IS operative. The chargesheet states that the intention to target PM Narendra Modi was expressed in a talk on a messaging app that was recovered from the cellphone and pen drive of the IS suspect, Ubaid Mirza.
As TOI reported Mirza was a practicing lawyer, and Kasim Stimberwala, working as lab technician in Sardar Patel Hospital and Heart Institute in Ankleshwar since March 2017.Both residents of Surat were arrested by the Gujarat ATS on October 25, 2017, from Ankleshwar.
“Stimberwala had service off 21days before he was detained and had planned to run away to Jamaica and join the jihadi mission under Shaikh Abdullah Al Faisal, a radical preacher,” an ATS official stated.
In the case Some IS suspects turned witnesses
“Kasim Stimberwala had applied for a job at Pinnacle Healthcare Ltd in Jamaica. We have recovered a work permit valid from September 22, 2017, to September 21, 2019,” an ATS official added.
The chargesheet notes that on September 10, 2016, at 11.24pm Mirza had texted message: “Pistol buy karna ho surely….then I will try to find a contact with him (If a pistol is to be bought, I will try to find a contact with him)”. Who was being referred to as “him” is not apparent.
As per the chargesheet, at about 11.28pm, Mirza received a reply from a social media contact calling himself `Ferrari': “Yeah, let’s take Modi out with a sniper rifle.”
According to sources all IS suspects, some of whom soon after became witnesses in the case, used to share such messages on a social media group called ‘AUT’ ( Ansar-Ul-Tawheed).
A senior ATS official cited. “We have recorded statements of witnesses under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) to corroborate the messages.”