— Photo: A. M. Faruqui

Imran Ansari, SIMI activist, in police net on Friday.

BHOPAL: The Bhopal police on Friday arrested Imran, a high-profile Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) activist wanted in two cases — one registered at Surat in Gujarat and the other at Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh.

Bhopal Range Inspector-General Sanjeev Singh told The Hindu that Imran's arrest could not be linked to the Mumbai serial blasts on the basis of the interrogation and investigations held so far.

Imran, a 29-year-old resident of Nayapura in Indore, was organising SIMI activities at the national level. The police claim to have seized from him a cellphone with a Chennai number. It is believed that he was mobilising support for SIMI in Tamil Nadu for the last three months.

Imran was arrested in Kanpur in 2001 after a ban had been imposed on SIMI. Later that year, he escaped when several others attending a national conference of SIMI, presided over by him at Surat, were arrested. A case was registered at the Athwan Line Police station. In this case, Imran was wanted under Sections 3,10,13 and 15 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The other case was registered at Khandwa on April 16 this year. Six persons — Aqueel, Ghori, Asif, Naim, Atia and Rafia — were arrested. Naim told police that Imran was bringing out the SIMI mouthpiece, Tariq-e-Millat.

A police team from Maharashtra earlier this week arrived at Burhanpur for verification of the case of Mohammad Ilyas, who was arrested at the Sahar airport in Mumbai on July 14. The Burhanpur Superintendent of Police said this was a case of mistaken identity.

The police are tracing e-mails sent from different parts of the State claiming responsibility for the Mumbai serial blasts on behalf of the Lashkar-e-Ulhaq and the Lashkar-e-Kahar. It is learnt that five e-mails were received by the Bhaskar group of newspapers, the Aaj Tak television news channel and the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Sumit Tamrakar, a youth, has been arrested in Bhopal. A class VII student at Katni has also been nabbed. The boy sent an e-mail to Aaj Tak claiming responsibility for the Mumbai blasts. The Indore police are probing the last e-mail sent to the Rashtrapati Bhavan from Indore.

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