Given royal treatment in custody
by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
Pakistani terrorist Mohammed Naved Yakub who is set to record his confessional statement tomorrow under section 164 of the CRPc before a Chief Judicial Magistrate in connection with Udhampur terror attack, is getting 5-star treatment.
Highly placed sources in the government on the condition of anonymity told Lokmat that during the course of prolonged interrogation, Naved was given cashews, almonds and walnuts. Sleuths succeeded in convincing him that he had been misled by his Pakistani masters that he would return to his native place after the operation. The help of some of the psychologists and experts was also taken to ensure that Naved sings without much difficulty.
These sources say that investigators who grilled him for weeks together treated him with royalty in police custody and given every facility normally not given to a hardcore terrorist like him. Since Naved’ case is completely different than that of Kasab who was involved in 26/11 Mumbai attacks, the agencies wanted him to cooperate without delay and provide every detail to help gather impeccable evidence against those exporting terror from Pakistan’s soil.
The agencies were instructed that no third degree treatment be meted to him under any circumstances. In fact, Sharad Kumar, Director of the NIA personally flew to interrogate Naved and was stationed there for three days. It is said that National Security Adviser Ajit Doval was also monitoring the outcome of interrogation.
Before the NIA took over the case, the investigation by the local police was leading nowhere as Naved was proving to be a hard nut. However, he melted after a different kind of treatment was given.
This will be first time that a Pakistan terrorist captured alive is willing to make a confessional statement before a court. But the NIA is keeping its fingers crossed until the statement is recorded and sealed.
Naved confessed of his involvement in the August five terror attack after he was captured. A resident of Faisalabad in Pakistan, he was earlier brought from Srinagar by the NIA team and was also taken to the spot of terror attack on highway at Narsu Nallah in Udhampur district.
The NIA was able to create huge evidence based on the information provided by Naved in which he gave details of all his relatives, their mobile numbers, places of residence and others. This helped NIA to create Google Mapping evidence of those locations. Now the agencies can seek the Call Details Record (CDRs) of telephone numbers of all his relatives at international forums if Pakistan doesn’t cooperate.
Though all these numbers have been deactivated by the Pakistan agencies including that of Naved’s father Salamat. Truecaller, the contact list-sharing app that has a vast database of cell phone numbers, showed Salamat, Tahir (uncle) and Nadeem (brother) were registered under the same number.
