Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has arrested a man from Ratnagiri district for providing financial aid to two terror suspects, who were taken into custody by the Pune police on July 18, taking the number of arrests in the case to four.
According to a press release issued by the ATS on Saturday, the person from Ratnagiri was earlier detained. However, he was arrested on Friday after a probe showed his involvement in the case. The man provided financial help to the two terror suspects who were arrested by the Kothrud police in Pune, said the release. The ATS has not disclosed the identity of the person.
The ATS said a team that went to another state to investigate the case has issued a notice to a suspect asking the person to appear before it for inquiry. The agency on Wednesday arrested a man named Abdul Qadir Dastgir Pathan in Pune for providing shelter to the terror suspects Mohammad Imran Mohammad Yunus Khan (23) and Mohammad Yunus Mohammad Yakub Saki (24).
ATS, which recently took over the probe from Pune police, said that it recovered black explosive powder, laptops, parts of drones and books written in Arabic, among other things from Khan and Saki, in addition to a tent that they had allegedly procured to stay in forest areas in Pune’s adjoining districts.
Khan and Saki, wanted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for their alleged involvement in a terror-related case in Rajasthan, were nabbed from the Kothrud area of Pune city on July 18. Khan, Saki and Qadir have been remanded in police custody till August 5. The two arrested terror suspects hail from Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh and are graphic designers. Both carried a bounty of Rs 5 lakh each, the police said.