As reported in Mid-Day by  Ketan Ranga on  2010-01-05

Infamous drug peddler Bhola Madya was reportedly carrying 150 grams of cocaine at the party organised by Chhota Rajan lieutenant Paulson Joseph.

Sources revealed that the party at a private gymkhana in Chembur organised by gangster Chhota Rajan lieutenant Paulson Joseph on Christmas eve, which led to the suspension of five Mumbai cops on Sunday, was also attended by infamous drug peddler Bhola Madya.
Drugs for Rao

The 150 grams of cocaine Bhola is said to have been carrying was reportedly intended for Sunil Poddar, D K Rao and other Rajan gang members present at the party.

Bhola’s father Hyder Madya is said to be operating the drug business from Karachi, where he fled after he was declared an accused in the 1993 Mumbai blasts that claimed 257 lives.

The home of Ganesh Sakhre at Baiganwadi, Govandi didn’t see the gudi heralding the Maharashtrian New Year this time. Ganesh and his family are yet to recover from the loss of his father Sitaram Sakhre in the terrorist attacks at CST in November.

The pain remains as they have fresh memories of seeing the head of the family being killed in front of their eyes. “The terrorist who did this to us is still alive. He also should be shot dead they way he shot our father,” says 19-year-old Ganesh.

• Read full article by Divya Fernandez in Chembur-Ghatkopar Plus

Eleven Pakistanis sneaked into India in March, 2006 to plan and execute the train blasts, A N Roy, then city police commissioner, had said in September 2006. While nine fled the country, the tenth, Salim, was killed in the blast at Mahim as he probably could not get off the train in time, Roy said. The eleventh, Mohammed Ali alias Abu Osama, was killed in an encounter with the ATS at Antop Hill.

The plot’s ambit extended up to Bangladesh and Nepal and was executed by Pak-based Lashkar-e-Taiba with help of Jaish-e-Mohammed and the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). The operation had the stamp of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), he had said.

ATS investigations, with inputs from the Intelligence Bureau, found the Pakistanis came to Mumbai in three groups through Nepal, Bangladesh and the Gujarat.

In Mumbai, the Pakistanis stayed in rented apartments in Borivli (E), Malad, Bandra (W) and Mumbra, and 15 to 20 kg of RDX was brought by Ehsanullah, a Pakistani national. The bombs were assembled at Mohammed Ali’s house in Shivajinagar slum in Govandi and stored in a room rented by Faisal Shaikh on Perry Cross Road in Bandra (W).

On July 11, seven teams, each with one Pakistani, took taxis to Churchgate station, placed the bombs in trains and got down.

The ATS, which had arrested 13 SIMI members in 2006 for their alleged role in the 11/7 Mumbai train blasts, pointed to a flat in Govandi as the birthplace of the bombs that ripped apart Mumbai’s suburban trains. According to then-city police commissioner A N Roy, around 20 kg of RDX was smuggled into India by Ehsanullah, and 10 other Pakistanis in March 2006 through West Bengal, Gujarat and Nepal. The ATS claimed they stayed in rented rooms in Mumbra, Matunga and Mira Road prior to the blasts.

The Indian accused with the help of the Pakistanis, manufactured the bombs at a 100 sq ft room in Govandi. The ATS had said 18 persons were present in the room when the bombs were being assembled. The bombs were then transported to prime accused Faisal Shaikh’s rented flat in Bandra and from there they were taken to Churchgate in seven taxis. Each pair had an Indian and a Pakistani, said the ATS. Faisal was termed as the Western Indian commander of the Pakistan-backed Lashkar-e-Taiba. The accused planted bombs in seven trains and got down but one Pakistani, Saleem, could not get off and was killed in the blast. Another Pakistani, Omaid alias Osama, who was part of this operation, was killed in an encounter by the ATS on August 22, 2006.

The Govandi flat was owned by Mohammed Ali. His younger and elder brothers’ families – 14 members in all -stay in the 100 sq ft room which has a small mezzanine floor as well. The flat was purchased by Ali’s father around 25 years ago

As reported in TOI on 17 March , 2009

Read earlier article posted on 01-03-2009

The crime branch had claimed that the bombs for the blasts were manufactured in a Sewree flat and the RDX was procured by a wanted accused, Riyaz Bhatkal. But the ATS is sticking to its old theory that the bombs were assembled at a 100 sq ft flat in Govandi and not at Sewree. The ATS said that the RDX was procured by a Pakistani Ehsanullah, who had illegally entered India along with 10 other Pakistani accomplices.

With above theory or conclusion that bombs used in the July 11, 2006 train blasts were made in Govandi, as one of the evidence in addition to other reports, Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) is likely to discharge Indian Mujahideen (IM) co-founder Sadiq Shaikh , indicating that no evidence was found to link the outfit with the terror attack.

ALSO, During his polygraph test, Indian Mujahideen (IM) co-founder Sadiq Shaikh told the forensic experts that he had lied about the outfit’s involvement in the train blasts. This brought a new twist to the tale as Sadiq, till then, had told the Mumbai crime branch, the Ahmedabad police and the Delhi police that he and his accomplices engineered the explosions. As per the results of this tests submitted to ATS, Sadiq Shaikh was not involved in the train blasts and that he had lied during the interrogations conducted by other agencies.

Indian Mujahideen’s (IM) top operative Sadiq Sheikh’s confession on his alleged role in the July 11, 2006 serial Mumbai train blasts has come as a huge embarrassment to the Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad. Two years ago, the ATS had chargesheeted 13 people but Sadiq and other members of IM module were not named as conspirators.

On Friday, after a news channel aired the videotapes of Sadiq’s confession in which he says that he and his associates had purchased pressure cookers, placed bombs in them and planted them in trains, the ATS was at pains to rubbish it saying Sadiq was trying to mislead investigators.

‘‘Our teams are questioning him and we cannot reveal information at this juncture,’’ said acting ATS chief, additional director-general of police K P Raghuvanshi. It was Raghuvanshi who had headed the 7/11 investigation as ATS chief. He had then claimed that the blasts were carried out by Simi activists and Pakistanis.

Sadiq first admitted his role in 7/11 when he was in custody of the Mumbai crime branch. The crime branch, while investigating the cars stolen from Navi Mumbai which were used in the 2008 blasts in Ahmedabad and planting of bombs in Surat, arrested Sadiq and 20 others last September. DGP A N Roy had then said that Sadiq’s claims were part of an al-Qaida ploy to mislead investigators. TOI had reported these developments extensively in its edition of October 15, 2008.

In the confession which has come to light now, Sadiq, an electronic engineer, said he along with his accomplices engineered the train bombings (which killed 188) on the instructions of his mentors, Riyaz Bhatkal and Amir Raza, both of whom are wanted.

In his statement before the police, Sadiq said that they had manufactured the bombs at a flat in Sewri in central Mumbai which was taken on rent by Abu Rashid, a wanted accused. However, the ATS said the bombs were manufactured in a 100-sq ft room in Govandi and that some Pakistanis were also present there.

‘‘All five of us arranged local first class train passes beforehand. We also had the local train time table with us so that we could choose a train as per our convenience. We purchased bags and pressure cookers in Bombay,’’ Sadiq told the police, adding, ‘‘On the day of the blast — July 11, 2006 — all five of us assembled the bombs and filled seven cookers with explosives. We kept the bombs ready. We had planned the bombs to go off at 6:30 pm. So we had activated the timer at 2 pm. We planned to move one by one with the bags containing the bombs.’’

The crime branch in its chargesheet against the IM module had mentioned that Sadiq was allegedly involved in several blast cases across the country since 2005. Soon after, the ATS which had earlier rubbished the IM claims of carrying out the train attacks, sought custody of Sadiq.