JD-U says its leader has no contact with blasts mastermind

JD(U) today rallied behind party leader Taqui Akhtar who has been under scrutiny for family connections with fugitive IM Patna serial blasts mastermind Mohammad Tahseen Akhtar alias Monu and said the family has had no contact with him for nearly two years.
Taqui Akhtar, JD(U) Samastipur district unit general secretary and his extended family of six brothers had no contact with Tahseen for nearly two years, senior party leader and Water Resources Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary told reporters in Patna.
The NIA and police had repeatedly questioned the Akhtar family on contacts with Tahseen, son of Taqui's elder brother Wasim Akhtar, Chaudhary said.

They had obtained the Call Detail Record of the telephone numbers of family members which confirmed that there was no contact with Tahseen for more than two years, he said while presenting Taqui before the media.
Chaudhary said that Tahseen visited his family for the last time in November 2010 to celebrate Bakr Eid in his home village Maniyari in Samastipur district.
An NIA team visited the Indian Mujahideen operative's village on December 19, 2011 and had questioned his father, but it could not establish the family's association or contact with him, Chaudhary said, adding that the Akhtar family had lodged a missing report about him last year.

Tahseen was considered as number two in the IM ranks after Yasin Bhatkal and investigations revealed that he was the mastermind of the serial blasts in Patna on Sunday when BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi addressed a rally.