Conflicting reports on Anees Ibrahim

It’s still not clear who the three persons detained at the airport at Jeddah in Saudi Arabia were. The versions as given by the Indian security agencies are typical to their character. More they try to clarify, more they appear to hide.
“We have information that three people have been detained at Jeddah airport. But there is no official confirmation and neither has anyone approached us yet." Mumbai’s Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), said.
It’s not clear, again, who the Joint Commissioner was expecting to contact him. Did he expect the authorities at Jeddah to call him for a candle-light dinner and give him the details?

Uncertain reports
There were reports in the Indian media that Anees Ibrahim, brother of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and two others were held at Jeddah in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. Anees is one of those most wanted suspects in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case. He was said to be trying to leave the country after a pilgrimage to Mecca.
Indian agencies were unable to confirm or deny the reports even after more than 24 hours.
The Indian mission in Saudi Arabia had passed on details of the passports and identity of Anees, who is wanted under an Interpol Red Corner notice, to local authorities but were yet to hear from them until late on Tuesday.
How naïve! Do the Indian sleuths expect criminals like Anees to travel with their regular papers? Or do they expect the Saudis to work for them?

History of non co-operation
Asking a local authority in a foreign state is ok. But India will have to fight for itself. There is no history of Saudi Arabia or, for that matter, any Islamic state to be sympathetic towards India. More so, when the Muslim fundamentalists are involved.
Some sources say, Anees Ibrahim Kaskar was travelling under the name Sayed Omar Haji Ebrahim and carrying a Pakistani passport. The other two are suspected to be Salim Chiplun travelling as Sikander Khan, S/o Iqbal Khan and Shamsher Dawood as Shafi Bawa, S/o Ahmed Bawa.
Sources in Gujarat said that Shamsher Dawood is none other than Sharifkhan Pathan, sharpshooter of former Ahmedabad underworld don Abdul Latif Abdul Wahab Shaikh.
Pathan is wanted by Gujarat Police for a number of offences including counterfeiting, forgery, crime involving the use of weapons and explosives, terrorism, thefts and kidnapping among others. A Red Corner notice has been issued against Pathan by the Interpol at the behest of CBI.

Held and released
A report in The Indian Express says, Anees, who is wanted in Mumbai for training youths for the blasts, is also wanted by Gujarat Police in at least one case. If confirmed, it would not be the first time that Anees has been detained in a Middle-Eastern country.
He is known to have been held in Dubai twice since 1996 and once in Bahrain about a decade ago. But each time he was let off for want of evidence.
In 2002, Dubai is believed to have deported him to Pakistan despite the CBI sending an extradition request saying he was one of the main conspirators in the Mumbai blasts.

Fingerprint identication
Security sources said that if Anees’s detention is confirmed, a newly introduced fingerprint identity system at Jeddah airport would have led to the breakthrough.
Although Anees as well as Dawood are known to travel around the region by faking their identities and passports, Indian agencies have fingerprints of both on record and they have been circulated through Interpol.
The fingerprint system was introduced by Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry about six months ago to plug a loophole in its immigration system which was apparently being misused by people who entered the country on Umrah Visas and stayed on illegally and sought employment.

Numerous passports
Anees, sources said, is known to have passports of India, Pakistan and the U.A.E. He has performed Umrah several times. Although India does not have an extradition treaty with Saudi Arabia, some officials said they were hopeful of progress if his detention is confirmed.

Motive can be considered for conviction of criminals

The Supreme Court has held that motive can be considered as a relevant circumstance for convicting the accused in a criminal case if the evidence is clear and unambiguous. The court made this clear while reversing the acquittal of six persons convicted by a trial court in Uttar Pradesh in a case of triple murder 30 years ago.
Justice Sathasivam said, “Motive is a thing which is primarily known to the accused themselves and it is not possible for the prosecution to explain what actually promoted or excited them to commit the particular crime. The motive may be considered as circumstance which is relevant assessing the evidence. But if the evidence is clear and unambiguous and the circumstances prove the guilt of the accused, the same is not weakened even if the motive is not a very strong one.”

CA's help sought by the CBI

The CBI has written to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) seeking help to probe the growing number of financial crimes.
"The CBI has already written to ICAI to provide expertise as and when required," says the new CBI Director Ashwani Kumar.
Kumar says the CBI has been giving special attention to economic offences ever since the outbreak of the 1992 Harshad Mehta scam.
"We separated economic offences wing from general offences wing in 1992 and now we have full fledged five economic offences' wing functioning within the organization."

Not equipped
The agency was not well equipped to probe financial crimes when the "stupendous task" of securities scam was handed over to it. "Today, we have such good officers in the CBI who can take up any case of bank fraud."
Now the agency is looking forward to have some chartered accountants who will coordinate with agency officials to probe the entire ramifications of economic offences.