37,000 riyals sent to Faizal Sheikh seized
"Of the total money, 25,000 riyals were sent a day before the blasts, and 12,000 riyals came a day after," ATS chief said.
In the first indication that the July 11 serial blasts in trains in Mumbai could be foreign funded, police on Monday claimed it has seized 37,000 riyals (apprx Rs 4.4 lakh) sent from Saudi Arabia through hawala to Faizal Sheikh, a key Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operative, arrested last week in the case.
Though the money was sent by Faizal's brother, who lives in Saudi Arabia, anti-terrorist squad officials said that what was suspicious is that part of the money came a day before and remaining a day after the blasts.
"Of the total money, 25,000 riyals were sent a day before the blasts, and 12,000 riyals came a day after," ATS chief KP Raghuvanshi told reporters in Mumbai.
Faizal, suspected to be a key LeT operative, supervised the outfit's operations in the region.
He is alleged to have recruited people to undergo LeT training in Pakistan and gets money from abroad for the purpose, police sources said.
He was arrested along with his brother Muzammil, a software programmer, on July 27.
ATS on Monday also hinted that the perpetrators of blasts could have links in Jammu and Kashmir. "We have some leads linking to J&K and we are liasoning with the J&K police in this regard," Raghuvanshi said.
He said that the help of J&K police has been taken to get details of one more suspect, as there was no record of the person in Maharashtra.