Bhubaneswar: Odisha Crime Branch will seek seven-day custody of Sayed Ishaan Bukhari, the arrested 37-year-old Kashmiri fraudster with suspected terror links, STF SP Kishore Kumar Panigrahi told the media on Sunday. Currently, the accused is lodged in Ragadi sub-jail but will soon be shifted to Jajpur jail for security reasons.
Bukhari, who impersonated an Army doctor and senior official at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), was arrested by STF during a raid at his rented house at Neulpur in Odisha’s Jajpur district on Friday. He allegedly fakes his identity as an associate of National Investigation Agency (NIA) officials.
Panigrahi said that the STF is in touch with IB, and their counterparts in Jammu & Kashmir and Punjab. “Once we get Bukhari’s custody, police from those states may visit Odisha to interrogate him. Although his terror links are yet to be established we are now waiting for details from J&K police,” Panigrahi said.
During interrogation, Bukhari confessed that he was booked for cheating and forgery in J&K in 2017 and a non-bailable warrant was issued against him. Thereafter, he has been hiding in Odisha. The Punjab Police have also registered a case against his father under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
Saying that Pakistan numbers were found in Bukhari’s mobile phone, Panigrahi said, “We have also written to the service providers for his CDR analysis. We are also looking into his financial transactions.” The police have proof of Buhakhari’s chats with suspected terrorists in Pakistan. He chatted with ISI agents, but later deleted the chats, police said.
