Jewellers' kidnapping case: Accused nabbed after 16 years

An accused wanted for the kidnapping of two Rajkot-based jewellers in 2000, a case in which the ransom paid was allegedly used to fund terror activities, has been arrested by Gujarat ATS after nearly 16 years.
Based on a tip-off, the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) nabbed the accused - Shailendrasinh Jat (45) - from his residence in Rohini area of New Delhi yesterday and brought him here today, a release of the ATS said.
As per the case details, two Rajkot based jewellers - Paresh Shah and Bhaskar Parekh - were allegedly kidnapped at gun-point by Jat's henchmen on November 12, 2000, in Rajkot.

While investigating the case at that time, police learnt that the kidnappings were allegedly made to fund terror activities by extracting ransom from the families of the victims, the ATS said.
Till now, 49 accused involved in the case have been arrested by police, it further said.
"At that time, the kidnappers, who were working at the behest of international terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed, demanded a ransom of Rs 20 crore. While police at that time managed to free Paresh Shah from the kidnappers, Bhaskar Parekh was taken to Delhi by Jat's men," said ATS sub-inspector C R Jadav, who got the tip-off and nabbed Jat yesterday.

As per the ATS release, Parekh was released by the kidnappers in December 2000 after his father paid a ransom of around Rs 1.5 crore, which then went to one Aftab Ansari.

Notably, Ansari was arrested by the CBI in February 2002 upon his deportation from Dubai, as he was a key accused in the terror attack on American Centre in Kolkata in January that year.
"During probe by the Rajkot police and CBI till now, it has been revealed that Ansari was working at the behest of senior commander of terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed Shaikh Mohammad Omar, who is believed to be in the UK. Ansari managed to acquire huge cache of arms through the ransom money," said Jadav.

According to the ATS release, Jat was part of a gang led by one Aamir Raza, who asked Jat and his accomplices to abduct the two jewellers in order to get ransom to fund terror activities for Ansari, who was working for Shaikh Omar.
Jat has been handed over to Rajkot police for further probe as the FIR of abduction was lodged there.
As per the release, Aftab Ansari, the native of Uttar Pradesh, had been found guilty in the American Centre attack case by a court, which awarded death sentence to him.
Ansari is at present lodged in Kolkata jail.