Dutt received weapon, says '93 blast accused

Riyaz Siddiqui, an aide of extradited gangster Abu Salem, who was arrested by CBI for his  suspected involvement in the 1993 serial bomb blasts, is understood to have told the agency that actor Sanjay Dutt received an AK-56 assault rifle from a cache of arms he brought from Gujarat in January 1993.

Riyaz, arrested on Wednesday, reportedly told CBI that Anees Ibrahim asked him to go to Gujarat in January 1993 to collect an arms consignment.

Complete Coverage: Abu Salem Extradited

He met Salem at a location in Gujarat, and the duo drove back to Mumbai in separate vehicles laden with arms and ammunition, which later reached the blasts accused, including Dutt.

The CBI, while seeking custody of extradited gangster Abu Salem on Thursday, told the designated TADA court about Siddiqui's visit to Gujarat and how the arms reached the conspirators.

CBI special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told the court that Siddiqui revealed that he received a phone call from Anees Ibrahim in January 1993, asking him to reach Gujarat.      

"Following the phone call, Siddiqui went to a place in Gujarat where he met Salem. The duo returned with arms and ammunition," Nikam informed the court, but refused to disclose the place, stating that it could hamper investigations.

Nikam also told the court that a woman had accompanied Siddiqui to Gujarat. He also said that the central agency planned to take him to Gujarat to establish the identity of the woman as well as those who assisted him to bring the arms to Mumbai.

Seeking custody of Salem, CBI told the TADA court that Siddiqui had also provided them information about the blasts conspiracy, which Salem had allegedly held back despite being in custody of the agency for all these days.

"We want to cross-check information and also find out why Salem did not tell us about it," Nikam told the court. Sources said that this vital information provided by Siddiqui, was allegedly held back by Salem, although he stayed in CBI custody for more than a month and voluntarily made a confessional statement on his role in the 1993 blasts.

CBI prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam also said that both Salem and Siddiqui have provided some new names who could also be involved in the 1993 blasts, and the custody of Salem and Siddiqui together was needed to confront them on several issues besides working on other information provided by them.

Meanwhile, sources said that the blasts theory as was being propounded by the CBI so far, could take a new twist, if the information provided by Siddiqui that a consignment of arms and ammunition used by the blasts conspirators came from Gujarat, proved true.

So far, the agency has been claiming that explosives, arms and ammunition landed at Dighi, Shekhadi and Nagla bunder ports in Maharashtra and did not find any lead of smuggling of arms and ammunition outside the state.