New Delhi: Pune blast suspect Abdul Samad Bhatkal's bail application has been rejected by a Mumbai court on Tuesday. He's been sent to 14 days of judicial custody.
Bhatkal is the prime suspect in the blast at Pune's German bakery in February this year but he's been charged with possessing illegal arms.
The Maharashtra ATS succeeded in apprehending Bhatkal, 23, at Mangalore's Bajpe International Airport in Karnataka after he arrived on a flight from Dubai. He was produced before a metropolitan magistrate in Mazagaon.
ATS sources in Mumbai and Pune term his arrest a significant breakthrough and say it could lead the police to the larger ramifications of the entire conspiracy and the real perpetrators behind the blast in the German Bakery that also left 17 people dead and 50 others injured.
Seeking his remand in court, the Maharashtra ATS said that in August last year, police had seized a cache of illegal arms and arrested three people in Byculla, south Mumbai. The ATS claims that Bhatkal had supplied the illegal arms consignment.
In the second half of 2008, Bhatkal had been detained by Mangalore police for suspected involvement in the July 2008 Bangalore blasts case. But he was let off for insufficient evidence against him and he subsequently went to Dubai.
Bhatkal, an Indian Mujahideen (IM) operative, is suspected of having planted the bomb which ripped through the German Bakery, killing 17 people, including foreigners.
A resident of Bhatkal town in Karnataka's North Kanara district, he is believed to be a close associate of IM founders Riyaz Bhatkal and Iqbal Bhatkal.
Said to be a contract killer, Bhatkal is also expected to throw more light on the Pune blast and other terror acts elsewhere in the country.
Earlier in Delhi, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram confirmed Bhatkal's arrest and said that Pune police and Maharashtra ATS have succeeded in identifying and nabbing the prime suspect in the Pune blast.
He also complimented the investigative agencies for apprehending the prime suspect within 100 days of the incident.
Meanwhile, Bhatkal's family have released a video claiming that he was attending a wedding in Karnataka on the day of the German Bakery blast.
The family of Bhatkal claims he is being framed in the February 13 German Bakery blast in which 17 people were killed and 50 others injured.
Pune blast investigators claim CCTV footage on the blast night shows a man who looks similar to Bhatkal.
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