STF grills arrested SIMI men at an undisclosed location in Odisha capital

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Feb 19:

The Special Task Force (STF) of the Crime Branch of the Odisha police is grilling the five Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) operatives arrested from Rourkela at an undisclosed location here.

While a special team has been engaged for quizzing the five terror suspects, another team is looking after the security aspect.

A lady officer has been engaged to quiz the female terror suspect. The arrested suspects will be quizzed in three shifts, revealed a top police source.

The suspects are being interrogated in the presence of Crime Branch Special DG B K Sharma and Crime Branch IG Arun Bothra.

The STF of the Crime Branch has got the five SIMI operatives on a 13 day remand for interrogation which ends on March 1.

On the other hand, a team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has reached Rourkela and began its investigations, sources revealed.

An eight member team of the STF with the five arrested suspects in its custody amid tight security had left Rourkela for Bhubaneswar on Thursday evening after getting them on a 13 day remand from the Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDJM) Court Rourkela.

Five SIMI activists Mehboob Khan, Mohd Salik, Amjad Khan, Zakir Hussain and Mehboob’s mother Najma Biwi were arrested from the Quereshi Mohalla of Nala Road locality of Rourkela in the wee hours Wednesday after an exchange of fire with a joint team of Telangana and state police.

These activists of the banned outfit had escaped from the district jail in MP’s Khandwa in 2013 by scaling the jail’s 14-ft high wall and police teams of multiple states were looking for them since them.

These men were also in the radar of the National Investigation Agency (NIA).