Hyderabad: Investigation agencies have found that Rafeeq Ahmed alias Asghar, the suspected key operator and recruiter in South India of Janood-ul-Khalifa-e-Hind, had sent the threat letter to the French consulate in Bengaluru.
The letter had come before the visit of French President Francois Hollande who is the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi.
Asghar had stabbed a Telangana constable while being arrested in Bengaluru on Saturday. The Janood-ul-Khalifa-e-Hind (Army of the Caliph in India) has been linked to the Islamic State.
During their search at Asghar’s house at the Vinayak Layout in Parappana Agrahara, Bengaluru, the National Investigation Agency team found nearly 20 letterheads with the names of terror organisations including the Al-Qaeda and the ISIS.
The French consulate had received the threat letter on January 11 and it was purportedly sent by the al-Qaeda. The High Grounds police of Bengaluru registered a case based on a complaint by French consulate officials.
An investigation by the police revealed that the letter was posted from Chennai and was fake. NIA teams questioned Ashgar regarding the letter sent to the French consulate.
An official said that investigations revealed that the letter was sent by Ashgar. “The letter with the al-Qaeda label received by the French consulate had three lines of text and its background had a map of India. The letterheads recovered from Ashgar’s room had a similar map in the background,” the source said.
