Mumbai: When the photograph sent by Indian investigating agency did not match Syed Zabiuddin alias Abu Jundal in Saudi Arabian custody, a covert DNA matching was undertaken by the security agencies -- the story of which had all the trappings of a crime thriller.
Immediately after the arrest of the key handler in the 2008 Mumbai attack in the first week of May in Saudi Arabia last year following intelligence inputs provided by Indian security agencies, the authorities in Riyadh informed India about his detention.
Saudi Authorities at the same time also informed that his name was Riyasat Ali and he had a Pakistani Passport and Computerised Personal Identification Card issued at Karachi, officials associated with the probe said on Thursday.
The authorities in Riyadh also informed that the photographs sent by Indian security agencies did not match with him, triggering anxiety.
After much deliberations, a senior official of Mumbai police was roped in for a covert operation to secure a DNA sample from the father of 31-year-old Zabiuddin.
The senior official, who was working under the command of the Union Home Ministry, immediately took out the list of informers in Beed district.
In a carefully chalked out operation, one of the informers started picking up regular fights with father of Zabiuddin and in one such scuffle, the father had to be taken for medical aid.
During the course of the medical treatment, blood samples were taken discreetly and these were preserved and sent to laboratories in Hyderabad and Delhi for DNA profiling.
After completion of DNA profiling, the same was dispatched to Saudi Arabia.
However, even before the profile matching could take place, Zabiuddin acknowledged he was an Indian resident and also admitted he had a role in the Mumbai attack.
Zabiuddin`s mother, however, claimed that the samples of the family were never collected.
"Our (Rehana and her husband Zakiuddin`s) DNA test was never done," Rehana Begum told reporters in Beed.
PTI
