'Plot to Assassinate Hindu Leader': Surat Crime Branch Arrests Another Accused From Bikaner

Crime Branch DCP Bhavesh Rozia said that the accused Ashok Suthar alias Abu Bakar was nabbed by a special team from Rajasthan's Bikaner upon the disclosure of another arrested accused Shakeel Sattar Shaikh alias Raza, a B.Sc student from Nanded, Maharashtra.

Surat: The Surat Crime Branch in Gujarat has arrested another accused from Rajasthan's Bikaner, in connection with the alleged plot to assassinate Sanatan Sangh national chairman Updesh Rana, an official said. Crime Branch DCP Bhavesh Rozia identified the arrested accused as Ashok Suthar alias Abu Bakar.

Sources in the Surat Crime Branch said that Bakar was nabbed by a special team in Bikaner following specific inputs about his presence in the area. Bakar's presence in Bikaner surfaced during the interrogation of one Shakeel Sattar Shaikh alias Raza, a B.Sc student from Nanded, Maharashtra who has already been arrested by the Crime Branch in the case.

Sources said that arrested Bakar was in constant touch with Maulvi Mohammad Sohail Abubakar Timol of Surat who was first arrested by the Crime Branch in the case, and had converted to Islam and started living in Delhi and Bikaner. During investigation, the Crime Branch has also found Pakistani numbers from his mobile phone. The crime branch has confiscated his mobile phone and computer.

The Surat Crime Branch had earlier picked up Bihar youth Mohammad Ali Mohammad Sabir from Muzaffarpur near Nepal border on the basis of interrogation of arrested Maulvi Mohammad Sohail Abubakar Timol.

Pertinently, Maulvi Mohammad Sohail Abubakar Timol was arrested by the Surat Crime Branch on May 3 over his alleged plot to kill Sanatan Sangh national chairman Updesh Rana. According to the Surat Crime Branch, Timol made several calls to Rana and threatened to kill him on the lines of Kamlesh Tiwari, president of the Uttar Pradesh-based Hindu Samaj Party murdered in 2019 in UP capital Lucknow. Timol is also accused of threatening the chief editor of Sudarshan TV, former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma and Telangana MLA Raja Singh. Sources said that Timol's handlers based in Nepal and Pakistan had offered to pay him Rs 1 crore for killing Rana.