Samad gets bail, Maharashtra ATS left red-faced

Maharashtra ATS was left red faced with bail granted to Samad, allegedly involved in Pune blasts.

Mumbai: The Maharashtra ATS was left red
faced today with a court granting bail to Abdul Samad,
arrested in connection with an 2009 arms seizure case and
alleged to be involved in the Pune blast case, saying there
was no evidence against him.

23-year-old Samad, a resident of Bhatkal district in
Northern Karnataka, had filed a bail application in the court
of Additional Sessions Judge S L Pathan claiming that he was
an accused in the 2009 arms case for which he had been
arrested.

Samad was picked up by the ATS Maharashtra on May 25 at
Mangalore airport after he was returning from Dubai and
immediately Union Home Ministry was informed about it. He was
charged with supplying of arms to three persons arrested from
South Mumbai in August, 2009.

The judge observed there is no evidence against Samad
and that even the ATS had never shown Samad as a "wanted
accused" in the 2009 arms seizure case and ordered his release
on a surety of Rs 25,000.

Only one person, named Arif Mirza Baig, was shown as
"wanted accused" in this case, the judge observed and pointed
out that the other three co-accused arrested earlier were out
on bail. Hence on parity grounds, Samad was granted bail.

The ATS had claimed a breakthrough in this year`s Pune
German Bakery blast, which claimed 17 lives, with the arrest
of Samad. Even Union Home Minister P Chidambaram had issued a
statement complimenting the ATS for the breakthrough. However,
the statement was diluted later and the Home Minister
cautioned the police to verify all the facts.

Defence lawyer Solkar argued that Samad`s name was not
included in the investigating agency`s remand application
filed in 2009, while ATS has been claiming that Samad has been
named as an accused in the 2009 arms seizure case.

ATS claimed that Samad, allegedly close to gangster
Chhota Shakeel, had provided arms to Haji Imran, Suleiman
Patel and Afzal Shaikh who were arrested on August 5 last year
from a Mazgaon hotel.

-PTI

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