Hyderabad: Man in BJP leader murder plan held

Hyderabad: A key accused in a conspiracy case to kill Bharatiya Janata Party leader N Indra Sena Reddy in Hyderabad has been arrested by the Special Investigation Team of Hyderabad. Syed Zakir Raheem, in his late 40s and resident of Saidabad, was sent back to India by Saudi authorities. A police team from CCS arrested him at Delhi airport.

In 2004, a group allegedly trained by the ISI, had conspired to kill the then BJP MLA Reddy and  Baddam Bal Reddy. Police had arrested four people in the case, but the other suspects were absconding. The main accused, Farhat Ullah Ghori, who is a relative of Raheem, is presently in Pakistan.

Ghori is an absconding accused in a case relating to a conspiracy by terrorist organisations Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) of target killings of important personalities in Bangalore and Hubli.

According to the police, the Saudi government sent Raheem back to India after he was caught in a job related case. “We received information that he was landing at Delhi airport. Our team went there and arrested him,” said CCS DCP Avinash Mohanty.

 Raheem had gone to Saudi Arabia in 2004. He was a fugitive on the Hyderabad police list.  “He has been brought to Hyderabad. He will be grilled and lodged in judicial remand,” said a senior official.

According to the police, the militants had studied the localities where the houses of Mr Indra Sena Reddy and Mr Baddam Bal Reddy were located. They found it easy to attack Indra Sena Reddy as he sometimes went with less security. They decided to attack him  at Osmangarh. Police had then provided special protection to the BJP leaders.