Born on November 13, 1981 in the nondescript village of Gevrai, in Beed, Maharashtra, Syed Zabiuddin Syed Zakiuddin Sayeed, or Zabi, as his family and friends called him, was a soft-spoken, polite boy. The son of an insurance agent, Zabi finished school and went on to do an electrical course from Indian Technical Institute. Once he qualified, one of the contracts young Zabi landed was do electrical work at the Beed Superintendent of Police’s office in 2004.
But along the way, something changed in his head. Like many Muslim youths, the Gujarat riots in 2002 deeply affected Sayeed. He was influenced initially by an acquaintance, an activist of the banned organisation Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), Maulana Mohammed Amir Sheikh. In 2005, Sheikh in turn introduced him to Mohammed Aslam Khalid Sardana, a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative also known as Aslam Kashmiri.
He first came to the attention of the police on May 9, 2006, when the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) were in hot pursuit of two vehicles suspected of carrying arms in Aurangabad. While the car Sayeed was allegedly driving got away, the ATS recovered a record haul from the other vehicle — 30 kg of RDX, 10AK-47 rifles and nearly 3,200 rounds of ammunition — and arrested 21 men. From that day, Sayeed became one of the most wanted criminals in India, but he eluded the reach of the law.
Then, during the Mumbai terror attacks of November 2008, the voice of the controller who was instructing the ten LeT attackers drew the attention of investigators. His Urdu was different from the accents of the others: it seemed to be more Indian in its inflection. The later interrogation of Ajmal Kasab, the one terrorist captured alive, linked the controller, Abu Jundal, to the absconding Zabiuddin Sayeed.
Sayeed alias Jundal was in Saudi Arabia. It took almost four years to have him handed over to India’s law enforcement authorities: he was deported to India in June 2012, and arrested by the Delhi police on his arrival.
He has since been in judicial custody.
The chargesJundal is charged with conspiracy or attempt to commit or advocate, abet, advise, incite directly or knowingly facilitate the commission of Terrorist Act under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
The charges say the conspiracy dates back to 1996, in Aurangabad, Malegaon and Manmad and other states with the intent to threaten or likely to threaten the unity, integrity, security or sovereignty of India or with the intent to strike terror in the people by using explosives which by very nature of it was to cause or injuries to any person or loss of property. His intention, the court agrees, was to further the activities of terror organisations like SIMI and LeT
