JeM operative arrested in West Bengal, planned to target CM Suvendu Adhikari and minister

Kolkata: West Bengal Police’s Special Task Force (STF) on Saturday said that arrested Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) operative Hamim Mondal targeted West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari and another state minister and alleged links with Pakistan handlers were found. Meanwhile, STF has arrested Arpita Sarkar, a close aide of Mondal, from Jharkhand’s Sahibganj district.

“Hamim was asked by the Pak handlers to secure police uniform and create disturbances at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi during the recent GENZ protest on NEET. Pakistan links and money trails are being probed,” STF IG Gaurav Sharma said today.

“We had serious revelations that Adhikari was targeted and his movement patterns, unguarded movements were tracked. There was an attempt to honeytrap North Howrah MLA and MoS Umesh Rai’s son,” Sharma said during a media conference. “Both the arrested duo and others were close to the Pakistan based Sahjad Bhatti gang. the gang has close links with ISI and other Pak based organizations. There were four persons, who were interacting among themselves, with some suspicious handles in Pakistan-Rana, Abir Jath, Uzer, among others," STF IG said.


The probe by STF revealed that communication patterns of the operatives showed that the aim was to build a network, study movement patterns of identified targets and expand handlers, STF said.

Sharma said that there were several handles and encrypted and sim cards were brought from Mexico and other international cities. Bank accounts of Mondal and money trail are being tracked.

Arpita Sarkar and Hamim Mondal knew eachother for the last three-four-years and Sarkar was completely aware of what she was doing, the top official said. “This is a sensitive matter. Many more are on the radar. Mondal is a second year college drop out while Sarkar is a graduate and lives in Jharkhand's Sahibganj. It was through Arpita, Hamim was tracked.”

A few days back, STF received inputs of extortion, kidnap and honeytrap planning following a complaint by North Howrah MLA. “We launched an inquiry. Based on preliminary investigation, the Sahebganj handle was tracked. The Handle was interacting with one Hamim Mondal. The boy’s interaction with some suspicious handles were identified liek Rana, Abir Jath, Uzer which operated from Pakistan was identified.”
The suspected terrorists and other handlers used encrypted handles, including whatsapp, INSTA, Element X and Telegram.