Kutty, an accomplice of Dawood and Salem in the 1996 arms and explosi

Ahmedabad: Abdul Majeed Kutty, the absconding agent of Dawood who was involved in smuggling of arms and weapons for terror attacks in Mumbai and Gujarat, has been arrested. He was absconding for the last 24 years. Finally, the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad arrested him from Jamshedpur in Jharkhand.

The infamous Pakistani intelligence agency, ISI, and gangster Dawood Ibrahim had planned more terror attacks in India in the year 1997. Bomb blasts and terror attacks were planned in Mumbai and Gujarat on 26th January 1997. Fortunately, the police received a tipoff regarding the plot, and based on the confidential information, the police raided the locations of these gangsters and seized a massive haul of weapons and explosives.

The Gujarat police seized four kilograms of RDX, ten detonators, 130 pistols, 113 magazines and 750 bullets from Mehsana. Three people were arrested in this connection. Mohammad Faisal Usman (Ajmer), Anwar Qureshi (Mumbai) and Shakeel Ibrahim Qureshi (Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh) were the names of the gangsters arrested. Kutty succeeded in escaping.

The Mehsana court issued arrest warrants against Dawood Ibrahim, Abu Salem and Kutty. Dawood Ibrahim and Abu Salem had already fled from the country, even before the 1993 blasts. Whereas, Kutty fled from the country in 1996. For the last so many years, he was living in a foreign country. But the Gujarat police received information that he had returned to India in 2019 and was living in Jamshedpur with a different name.

Kutty was living in Jamshedpur under the name Mohammad Kamal since the last one and a half year. Following the tipoff received by Gujarat ATS deputy Chief KK Patel from an informer, Kutty was arrested. Kutty has been brought to Gujarat for interrogation. The Gujarat police had informed that he confessed to having a hand in the plot for the 26th January 1997 bomb attack and weapons and explosives smuggling.

Kutty is originally from Mumbai and was a resident of Mahim. He went to Dubai in 1984. After working for a company for a few years, he returned to Mumbai and joined the Dawood Ibrahim gang. Kutty started gold smuggling with Anees Ibrahim, Abu Salem, Mohammad Dosa, Chota Shakeel, Tiger Memon and others including Dawood Ibrahim. After the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts, Dawood Ibrahim and all his close associates fled the country. But Kutty was in India even after that. In 1996, Kutty went to Dubai and met Abu Salem. The plot to carry out blasts and attacks on 26th January 1997 was finalised during this visit. Weapons and explosives needed for the attacks were smuggled into India through the India-Pakistan border at Barmer in Rajasthan. Gujarat police received information that after Mohammad Faisal Mohammad alias Pathan completed the task, Kutty was responsible to reach the haul safely to Mumbai. Kutty escaped once the haul was seized. For some time, he was in Bangkok. There, he met Mohammad Inam from Jamshedpur. Police said that Kutty got a fake Indian passport with his help and in the name of Mohammad Kamal, he restarted gold smuggling.

Dawood Ibrahim and Abu Salem have already been handed out life sentences in the 1996 weapons and explosive smuggling case.