You can expect Rakesh Maria to continue to deny any wrong. The main bombers who are Pakistani have escaped who are still free to make bombs and utilise them. if one agency is saying that they were co-operating with Naqi, why not confirm this fact before denying it outright?
The way you would crack terror groups is by infiltrating one your people into them as a double agent and then getting the big fish, this is what seems to be the approach the Delhi police had taken.
Turf battle erupts around blast arrest
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Media reports in the past week have suggested that Naqi was a Delhi police informer.
Delhi police sources today iterated that Naqi, who knew Bhatkal, was supposed to lead a Delhi police team camping in Mumbai to the three men living in the Byculla flat.
But before that, the ATS arrested Naqi in the forgery case after getting whiff of the Delhi police investigations in the ATS backyard. The arrest also alerted the three — Bhatkal and the two unidentified suspects, the Delhi sources claimed.
Maria today rubbished claims of a botch-up, saying that he had been working closely with Delhi police. "The so-called high-handedness of ATS is absolutely unfounded and far from the truth. The main accused in the case, Bhatkal, was in the city only in the month of June for some time and in July before the blasts. He left on July 13, while the other two left in November, around the same time when Delhi police arrested six IM men in a nation-wide operation.
"The reports have claimed that he was to return to the city to collect his rent deposit and that he would have been arrested then by Delhi police and that the ATS botched up the operation. This is not true. Would the terrorists come back for Rs 84,000?" Maria asked.
But sources in Delhi police said Naqi was first contacted by their special cell in December to trace IM militants responsible for the Mumbai serial blasts. On January 8, Delhi police officers had taken him to Mumbai to identify two suspects, they added.
According to Naqi's brother Taqi Ahmed, Delhi police officers had taken Naqi to several places in Mumbai in search of terrorists. "I spoke to him on January 10 and he told me he would return home in a couple of days. But later I learnt that he was picked up by the Maharashtra ATS at night. He is suffering because of the ego clash between Delhi police and their counterparts in Mumbai. Whenever I call up Mumbai police, they abuse me," Taqi said.
Taqi stays in Jamianagar in south-east Delhi and owns a small leather shop.
A Delhi police officer said: "They (the Maharashtra ATS) felt bad when Delhi police solved the Pune bakery blast case last year. Now it will be difficult for them to prove Naqi's involvement."
But a top security officer said: "It's nothing but a turf war between the Maharashtra ATS and the Delhi special cell. Let them prove Naqi's involvement in the court of law."
Government sources in Delhi said there was no clash among agencies but conceded lack of clarity on sharing of information among different central and state agencies.
The Union home ministry is expected to meet directors-general of police next month to sort out problems of co-ordination between the ATS, central agencies and Delhi police