Man arrested for supplying gun to JM Road blast accused

The state anti-terrorist squad (ATS) on Sunday night arrested a terror suspect for his alleged role in the J M Road serial bomb blasts case that took place last year.

The accused - identified as Aslam alias Bunty Jahagirdar - is said to be a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) worker. According to the ATS officials, Bunty is an arms supplier and a history-sheeter with 13 cases lodged against him at several police stations across the state.

Nabbed: Aslam alias Bunty Jahagirdar (inset) was picked up from his residence in Ahmednagar on Sunday.u00a0He was arrested for his role in the serial blasts that took place on J M Road in August last year. File Pic

According to ATS officials, Bunty was arrested from his residence at Shrirampur in Ahmednagar district for supplying a revolver to one of the accused Imran Khan before the August 1 blasts.

ATS officials further said that Bunty is the son of a sitting NCP corporator from Shrirampur, and he was under the scanner after the arrest of four accused, including Imran Khan to whom he had supplied a revolver.

Bunty was arrested and produced before the MCOCA court in Mumbai where he was remanded to ATS custody till January 24.

Chequered past
Bunty was also arrested in 2006 by the ATS for allegedly assisting a Pakistani spy Arif Lakhani. The police had then recovered classified documents, floppies, CDs and maps from him.

According to local police of Shrirampur, Bunty before getting into arms dealing was involved in illegal sand lifting. After earning a good fortune in the business, he moved into the crime world and started supplying guns.

In 2002, he was arrested for the murder of a gram panchayat member from a village in Bhiwandi. He was also arrested for murdering a Bajrang Dal president, Ravindra jain, in Bhiwandi.

There were several cases registered against him at local Crime Branch of Shrirampur in illegal sand lifting from river beds, running a chain snatching and pickpocketing gang, supplying arms. He was also externed from the district five times.
A police officer, on condition of anonymity, said that Bunty and his goons used to terrorise people living in the area, and he used to roam around town wielding a revolver in broad daylight. u00a0