NEW DELHI, Aug 1: The Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) operative Mohammad Hamim Mondal, arrested from West Bengal’s Bardhaman earlier this week, had planned to sabotage the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest over irregularities in NEET (UG) examination at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, a senior official said on Saturday.
For this purpose, Mondal planned to procure a police uniform and sabotage the agitation in the national capital. According to the police, Mondal also had links with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and was working at their behest.
“There was a plan to somehow procure a police uniform and carry out sabotage at the recent students’ protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi. Besides that, several police officers and politicians were also planned to be targeted,” IG (Special Task Force) Gaurav Sharma said at a press conference in Kolkata.
Mondal was also working on a plot to target West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari and other BJP leaders. He was planning to “honey trap” West Bengal politicians to extort money from them.
For this, he was in contact with one, Arpita Sarkar, who was arrested from neighbouring Jharkhand’s Sahibganj district on Friday. The two had known each other for last four years, Sharma said, adding they entered into a relationship later. He said further investigation continues to ascertain the full extent of their network.
“A few days ago, we received information about a plan to extort money from a senior politician from Howrah and abduct his son through a honey-trap. We were told that an organisation was behind the conspiracy. That led us to a social media handle from Sahibganj, which was being operated by one Arpita Sarkar,” he said.
The West Bengal STF also believes that Mondal used platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram to contact his handlers based in Pakistan; though they initially contacted through Instagram. He was reported in touch with ‘Rana’, ‘Uzair’, ‘Abid Jatt 333’ and ‘Hamad’, who are likely linked with the Shahzad Bhatti gang. The police are now working to identify others who worked with Mondal and were part of his terror module.
“During the investigation of his mobile phone and social media chat history, we have found some very disturbing information. He was in touch with several Pakistan-based handlers through encrypted platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram,” Sharma said at the media briefing.
(Manas Dasgupta)
