BOMBAY: The Bombay police On March 15 made further advance in its investigations of the persons connected with the bomb blasts in the city as two persons; Asgar Ali Taher Aliand Faridbhai, Were arrested for the sale of Scooters which were carrying ex Plosives.
TWO others who have been connected with the bomb blasts in the three suburban hotels last Friday however eluded police arrest after being involved in a shootout in Juhu Monday afternoon.
The description of the duo, Phillo Khan (30) and Mangesh Pawar (26), who both have long criminal records, were provided to the police by the hotel staff, On a tipoff the police spotted them near Chandan cinema house, Juhu, at 2:45 p.m. on Monday. They resisted arrest and opened fire at the Police party with AK47.automatic Buns, the police commissioner, A.S.Samra told the press. He said the police chased them till the Raheja complex in Andheri. The police found that the criminals had abandoned the car and made good their escape. The police have launched an extensive search operation in the area, Samra said. Meanwhile, two more scooters carrying around 20 kg of high ex plosives each were discovered at Zaveri Bazaar.
While one of them was anew one ‘Sold from the Nisha service center, the other was old, Samra said. The scooter found at Dadar and the new one found Jater on have been linked to a automobile agency called Misha Service Station at Byculla. The police commissioner said that the Bajaj scooters were purchased from a main dealer at Malund and later sold by the owner of Nisha Service Station to his mechanic. The payment for these scooters were made in cash. Further, what made the police suspicious was the fact that the scooters were sold by the dealer without a temporary registration number. While two of these three scooters have been recovered the third one (chassis number 01915, grey colored) is yet to be traced.
Samra said the scooters did not blow off because they were timed by crude pencil timers and the igniter was jammed,
In another incident the police has learned that the Memon family, owners of the car containing guns and grenades which was abandoned at Mahim on Friday, has fled in two batches to Dubai on Thursday and Friday respectively, While four of them left on Thursday, two others left on Friday after the blasts, Samra said.
One, Ismail Tiger Memon; the only one of the family with a Criminal record has not left the country, he said.
In a search of the Memon residence Monday the police found incriminating documents, photo graphs and Rs4 lakh in cash.
The photographs show members of the family with prominent public figures, underworld characters and oven a prominent cricketer Somth Said. A team of experts on high explosives will be arriving in the city on Tuesday to help in the investigations.
More than 50 calls were received by the police informing them about abandoned vehicles.
The police and the bomb squad had a busy day attending to these calls though only two in Zaveri Bazaar contained explosives.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 19, 1993
