Suspects booked for theft,planning dacoity

Five men from UP,who were first identified as suspects in the April 17 blasts at the Chinnaswamy Stadium and later tagged by the police as suitcase thieves operating on trains....

Five men from UP,who were first identified as suspects in the April 17 blasts at the Chinnaswamy Stadium and later tagged by the police as suitcase thieves operating on trains,were on Thursday charged under sections relating to theft and dacoity.

Detained in Hubli on Tuesday,they were brought to Bangalore Wednesday night and taken to the Upparpet police station,where they are accused in two cases,the police said. IB officials were among those who quizzed the five at the police station.

The five were identified as Abdul Qasim,Firoz Siddiqui,Imran Akbar,Mohammed Irfan and Sunil Rao. A sixth person from UP was also detained with them,but he was let off after a check was run on him.

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While Imran (32) and Feroz (40) are from Meerut,Irfan (38) is from Ghaziabad,Qasim (30) from Bulandshahr and Sunil (26) from Bijnore.

According to police records,Abdul and Imran are to be taken into custody on a court warrant for their alleged role in two cases one registered in 2008 and the other in 2009. They have been booked under IPC Sections 399 and 402 preparing to commit dacoity and assembling to commit dacoity and also charged with theft. They were to be produced before a magistrate.

The other three Firoz,Irfan and Sunil have been charged with abetting the offence. Police claimed some of them were arrested in 2005 in connection with suitcase thefts.

The five stayed at a hotel in Shivajinagar near the stadium on April 16 and 17 and that is possibly why their mobile phone records showed their presence near the stadium on the day of the blasts raising suspicion,a police official said.

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Back home in UP,their families said they were not aware of the arrests. Irfans wife Mumtaz said Irfan left home 20 days ago,saying he was going to Bangalore along with friends Qasim and Imran. She said her husband visited Bangalore every two months for business,but did not know what his business was.

However,V N Patil,the inspector of the Town Police Station in Hubli,who caught the five,said they claimed to have come to Karnataka for the first time. Imran,Irfan,Qasim and Feroz initially told the police that they ran a business of garments and watches in UP while Sunil claimed he was a milkman.