A doctor, Nayeem Siddique, was arrested for his alleged links with the Karnataka murder conspiracy on Sunday. The 18th person to be arrested in the case, he has been remanded in police custody for further interrogation.
Siddique, 26, was picked up from Bangalore’s Cantonment station while on his way home from Delhi. He had gone there with his with father Abdul Mutalib Katagi to get an admission in the post-doctoral emergency medicine course at the Apollo Hospital. He also visited Delhi regularly to use the library at AIIMS, a police officer said.

On Thursday, the Bangalore police had arrested 11 men with Lashkar-e-Taiba and Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami (HuJI) links, who had planned to murder journalists, politicians and others. Subsequent arrests were made over the weekend.

"Siddique was arrested on basis of information provided by the other accused," said commissioner Jyotipraksh Mirji.

The only son of a phone technician from Davanagere, 261 km from Bangalore, Siddique had been living in the city for the last two years, ostensibly to prepare for his MD course. But while in Bangalore, he had been providing logistical and financial support to the Lashkar and HuJI. He also was trying to recruit for both groups, Mirji said.

A laptop, a cellphone and Rs. 10,000 in cash have been seized from him.