27 August,2018 07:45 AM IST | Mumbai | Suraj Ojha
After making the fifth arrest in the Nalasopara arms haul case, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) will on Monday visit the latest accused, Avinash Anant Pawar alias Ajit Dada's workplace, the Mazagon dock. They're going there to look into a locker he allegedly has there to see what it contains. They have sent everything they previously uncovered from Pawar to the Forensic Science Laboratory.
Pawar is employed as a pipe-fitter with the Mazagon Dock Limited, a company that builds ships and major submarines for the Indian Navy. After getting information regarding the locker from their sources, ATS is likely to visit the dock on Monday. Anything found there will be analysed.
Close eye on others
Pawar was arrested on Friday on the suspicion of being involved in making and assembling crude bombs, which were going to be used for supposedly wreaking havoc in the state. Sources also revealed that ATS has a close eye on those in touch with him, and they suspect these people belong to Pune, Satara, Solapur, Nalasopara and Mumbai, and were also in on the plan of using the crude bombs in Mumbai and Pune.
During investigations, ATS officers found that Pawar had been in constant touch with the four arrested accused - Vaibhav Raut, 40, and Sharad Kalaskar, 25, from Nalasopara, and Sudhanva Gondhalkar, 39, and former Shiv Sena corporator Shrikant Pangarkar, 40, from Jalna. Following his arrest, three mobile phones were recovered from him, after which cops also got two more mobile phones and a CPU, after searching his home in Ghatkopar.
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How did he learn?
ATS also suspects that Pawar was involved in collecting bombs and arms, and are verifying his role in the team and the responsibility he'd given others. They're also looking into other arms and bombs he may have hidden. ATS also wants to know from where Pawar learnt to make explosives. "We're checking to see from where he has learnt all of this, if he does have such knowledge," said a source.
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