Engineering student is head of Rajasthan's terror module

JODHPUR: Engineering student Mohammed Maroof, a resident of Jhotwara, has emerged as the brainchild of Indian Mujahideen's Rajasthan module. He not only recruited six people from Sikar on instructions from his IM handlers, but also contacted people in Jodhpur to join the terror outfit. Maroof took pledge on the Internet and made all the other recruits took the same pledge of taking revenge of Gopalgarh riots and mob burning of SHO Phool Mohammed in Rajasthan.
All these claims have been made in two chargesheets filed in courts in Jaipur and Jodhpur on Thursday. While the ATS chargesheet filed in the court of chief metropolitan magistrate named 12 accused (six from Sikar, three from Jodhpur and three from Jaipur), the one filed in the court of Jodhpur's additional chief judicial magistrate no 1 named 10 accused, including seven from Jodhpur and three from Jaipur.
The chargesheet states that Maroof was drawn towards religious fundamentalism, since he was a teenager. He came in contact with IM's top operatives, including Mohammed Atta and Riyaz Bhatkal through Internet in the last quarter of 2012.
The IM's top operatives made him took a pledge to seek revenge about atrocities on Muslims. Maroof was already in touch with six youths from Sikar whom he recruited. He was also in touch with Ashraf Ali, who used to run a magazine for which Maroof wrote articles.
Through Ashraf, Maroof recruited people in Jodhpur, including Mohammed Sakib Ansari, who became the head of Jodhpur region. These suspects used to run the module in an organized manner.
The suspects have been charged under sections of Explosive Substance Act 1908, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 and sections 120 B, 121, 121A,122, 456, 468 and 471 of the IPC.
In Jodhpur, The chargesheet also includes a list of the things seized or recovered during arrest/investigation of the case. These objects include a gunny bag of black gun powder, weighing 34.880 kg, two sample of the same in a small bottle (meant for testing of the intensity), residuals of the test of improvised explosive device (IED), an empty shell of detonator, some SIM cards, cell phones, laptops, CPUs along with a Gypsy car and documents like ration card and CAF acknowledgement book etc.
The chargesheet filed in Jaipur contained 3,447 pages with names of 180 witnesses.