Gujarat ATS bust ‘ricin terror plot

Originally published in the Indian Express

The Gujarat Police’s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has allegedly recovered four kilograms of castor-bean mash from a Hyderabad doctor arrested over suspected terror links on 7 November.

Three accussed have been arrested for allegedly plotting a terror attack had done a recce of the RSS office in Lucknow, the Agriculture Produce Market Committee in Azadpur, Delhi and the fruit market in Naroda, Ahmedabad, sources in the Gujarat Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) told The Indian Express Monday.

All these sites were surveilled by Azad Suleman Sheikh, 20, a tailor from Shamli, UP; and Mohammad Suhail Mohammad Saleem Khan, a 23-year-old student and a resident of Lakhimpur Kheri, UP — who are among those arrested, ATS sources said. The third accused, Dr Ahmed Mohiyuddin Saiyed,35, hails from Khammam in Telangana and his family stays in Hyderabad.

Regarding the role of Azad Suleman Sheikh (20) and Mohammad Suhail Mohammad Saleem Khan, a source in the ATS said, “The two men were radicalised, and had been in contact with a Pakistani agent for the past one-and-a-half years. On instructions of this handler, these two accused did recce of three locations — the RSS office in Lucknow, and the mandis in Azadpur and Naroda… The latter two because they are crowded areas.” 

The trio was caught with nearly four litres of castor oil, three guns and 35 live cartridges which led police to suspect they would use the chemical agent ‘Ricin’. What the trio was planning to do with the ricin is “still being investigated”, the investigators told The Indian Express. The castor oil was seized from Saiyed’s car, from near the toll plaza on the Ahmedabad-Mehsana road at Adalaj in Gandhinagar earlier this month.

“The accused told us they were trying to extract Ricin from castor beans. They were still processing it, so, we cannot comment on how they would have used it,” the ATS said.

Asked about an “workshop” where Saiyed was said to have been trying to extract Ricin as well as what other evidence the ATS had collected that they were booked under the UAPA, an official said, “We are yet to recover all the things from the workshop and can’t divulge the details at this stage of the probe. However, we do have evidence in the form of what materials he procured and from where, his search history in ChatGPT and the search engine, and so on.”