Pune blasts: Baig learnt bomb-making in Lanka

The alleged mastermind of the Pune German Bakery blast, Himayat Baig, was trained to assemble explosives in Colombo by two of the co-accused in the case when they visited the Sri Lankan capital in March 2008, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad has contended in the chargesheet submitted to the judicial magistrate in Pune.

A copy of the 2500-page chargesheet, which was filed by the ATS in the court of judicial magistrate S Bose on Saturday, was handed over to Baig who was produced in the court on Monday.

According to certain details of the document shared by defence counsel A Rahman with the press, Baig is charged with designing the German Bakery terror attack in Colombo along with Faiyaz Kagzi and Sayyad Ansari, two of the six co-accused named in the case who are absconding.

Baig, who ran a cyber cafe in Udgir, later finalised the plan to attack the eatery in the last week of January 2010 and went to Mumbai along with two other accused -- Mohasin Choudhary and Bhatkal -- to purchase a sack to keep the bomb and a Nokia mobile, the prosecution has alleged as quoted by Rahman.

The bomb that was planted in the Pune eatery at 1700 hrs, went off killing 17 persons including some foreigners and injuring over 60.

The six other co-accused charged along with Baig are--Yasim Bhatkal, Mohsin Choudhary, Riyaz Bhatkal, Iqbal Bhatkal, Faiyaz Kagzi and Sayyad Ansari--all stated to be absconding.

Rahman took instructions from Baig, who was brought to the court without a shroud.

ATS officer Vinod Satav told the magistrate that names of some witnesses had been deleted from the chargesheet to protect their identity. Baig is charged under various sections of IPC, Explosives Substances Act and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

The defence counsel said he would contest the omission of witnesses' names in a higher court.