Ahmedabad: The Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) team has arrested Abdul Majeed Kutty in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand. He is a wanted terrorist who was involved in an explosives case sent by underworld don Dawood Ibrahim 24 years ago at the behest of a Pakistani agency to carry out bomb blasts in Gujarat and Maharashtra on Republic Day 1997.
Three accused had been caught in Mehsana, Gujarat with the explosives in December 1996. Underworld don Dawood Ibrahim was found guilty of conspiracy after the arrest of Mohammad Fazal and Qureshi Shakeel in Mehsana.
Gujarat ATS DIG Himanshu Shukla and DYSP K. K. Patel had received information that Abdul Majeed Kutty was living in Barinagar near Telco Mosque in Jamshedpur under the name Mohammad Kamal. Based on the information, ATS DYSP K. K. Patel reached the spot with his team. Accused Abdul Majeed Kutty alias Mohammad Kamal was then picked up.
K.K. Patel told The Daily Guardian that the ATS team had received information about Abdul Majeed Mohammad Ahmed living in Jamshedpur, on the basis of which the team picked him from outside his house. His interrogation revealed that he was involved in the case and was working with several gangsters including Chhota Rajan, Abu Salem and Chhota Shakeel.
According to police, Kutty was born in 1962 in Mahim, Mumbai. Kutty’s father ran a medical store and died in 1978. Kutty moved to Dubai after the death of his father, where he worked on aluminium section glass fittings until 1984 and returned to Mumbai.
While visiting Mohammad Ali Road Kutty Jamat in Mumbai, he had come in contact with Dawood, his brother Anish Ibrahim, Tiger Memon, Abu Salem, Mohammad Dosa, Chhota Shakeel and Mustafa Dosa. With the Dawood gang, Kutty got involved in gold smuggling and customs theft and travelled to and from Dubai.
Kutty was in Dubai in 1996 when he met Abu Salem. Salem asked for delivery of the quantity of explosives from Ajmer sent to detonate on Republic Day in Gujarat and Maharashtra. Kutty sent his man, Mohammad Fazal, to collect the amount. “Your man has been caught with explosives and my man has escaped,” Abu Salem had told Kutty.
Kutty later moved to Bangkok, where he worked casually until 1999. Kutty then came in contact with Mummumiya Panjumiya of Porbandar and started smuggling gold. During this period, Kutty, who was in contact with Mohammad Inamali of Jamshedpur, fled to Malaysia when he made a passport in the name of Mohammad Kamal. Kutty then started his textile business in Kuala Lumpur. He came to Jamshedpur in 2019 and lived with the name of Kamal.
The court had earlier sentenced the three accused to life imprisonment and fined them Rs 1 lakh for the possession of explosives.