New Delhi, June 15: Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon, alleged masterminds of the 1993 serial blasts, had planned to set up an arms and ammunition factory in India and manufacture weapons to avenge the Babri Masjid demolition, the CBI said in court today.
This has emerged during the interrogation of Tahir Merchant alias Tahir Taklya, the alleged Memon aide who was deported from the UAE recently and is in police custody till June 19, the CBI said in its remand application.
The four-page application to the special CBI court said Merchant was one of the key conspirators in the 1993 blasts and a contact for absconding accused Memon and Ayub Memon.
Merchant had attended conspiracy meetings in Dubai, the CBI said.
Merchant had encouraged youngsters to take up arms training by making a “provocative” video, the remand application said.
It said he had provided logistical support to youngsters who were sent to Dubai for training.
The TADA court had issued a non-bailable warrant against Merchant after he was declared absconding in October 1993. In 2004, an Interpol red-corner notice was issued; the following year, his passport was confiscated by the Dubai police.
Defence lawyer Rizwan Merchant argued that the CBI is trying to extract a confession from Merchant. Last Wednesday, Taklya’s wife had written to the court, the CBI and Rizwan that he didn’t wish to confess, the lawyer said.
The CBI alleged that Merchant has been providing some information but not complete information that they could have worked on.
Merchant, who was originally based in Byculla, migrated to Dubai in 1976. He would visit India very often, sources said. Only after his name cropped up in connection with the 1993 blasts did he stop travelling to India. His wife and children are still in Dubai.
The CBI said he was in Dubai when the blasts rocked Mumbai on March 12, 1993.
—-Agencies