13/7 accused passed ATS HQ after blasts

Yasin Bhatkal, the suspected mastermind of last year’s July 13 triple blasts in Mumbai, roamed the city streets for almost two weeks after the explosions, investigators have said.

Yasin Bhatkal, the suspected mastermind of last year’s July 13 triple blasts in Mumbai, roamed the city streets for almost two weeks after the explosions, investigators have said.

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Rakesh Maria, chief of state anti-terrorism squad (ATS) which is probing the case, had earlier claimed that Bhatkal fled the city immediately after the blasts that killed 27 people and left more than 130 injured.

CCTV footage available with the ATS and interrogation of Naquee Ahmed, one of the four people arrested in the case, has now revealed that not only did Bhatkal and his two accomplices stay metres away from the ATS headquarters at Nagpada in south Mumbai, they passed in front of it three times on bikes in the days following the blasts.

This, despite the police being put on high alert, with Bhatkal’s photograph circulated to all police stations, and random checkpoints set up across the city to nab them.

ATS sources say Bhatkal, who eventually left the city on train, managed to slip away since he looked quite different from his photograph available with the police at the time.