Red corner notice to be issued against Lota

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat police have initiated the process for issuing of a red-corner notice against Yunus alias Lota, an accused in the 1993 Gosabara arms landing case. Lota, who is originally from Porbandar, is the prime accused in the arms landing case that was registered with the Porbandar police in 1993. The arms and explosives that were delivered on the Gujarat coast were allegedly used in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts.
Sources at the senior-level in the Gujarat police said that, all these years, Lota had remained untraceable until recently when they came to know through intelligence agencies that he is based in Dubai under a fake identity.
Police source said a red-corner notice had already been issued against another accused of the arms landing case, Mohammed Dosa. “The third absconding accused in the case is Dadalmiya who is related to Umarmiya Panjumiya Bukhari alias Mammumiya, the prime accused in the Gosabara arms landing case,” said a police source.
Another source in the police claimed that they had received an intelligence input that Lota, who is believed to be hiding in Dubai, had got his son married to the daughter of a businessman who originally hails from Kutch but is now based in Dubai.
Senior police officials claimed that with the help of central intelligence agencies, they had been able to get the Dubai cell phone number and photographs of Lota. “We established his identity and then initiated the process to issue a red-corner notice for him through CID crime, Gujarat,” said a police official.
The sources said that they had come to know that Lota had first sneaked into Pakistan. “Later, he acquired fake identity documents and a Pakistani passport on the basis of such documents,” said a source.
Senior police officials of Gujarat police confirmed that Lota had gone to Dubai and settled there. “We had no clue about Yunus Lota till recently when we got inputs saying he had got his son married to the daughter of a Kutch native settled in Dubai,” said a senior police officer.
It is alleged that Lota was on close terms with the underworld don Dawood Ibrahim who had masterminded the serial blasts that took place in Mumbai in March 1993. More than 250 people were killed in the explosions. The Mumbai blasts were carried out allegedly in retaliation to the demolition of Babri mosque in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.
During the 1990s, Lota was involved in smuggling. Dawood Ibrahim allegedly used the same smuggling network to push explosives and arms.