On Tuesday, a four-member team of the Bihar anti-terrorist squad (ATS) came to Pune to arrest 19-year-old Shariat Anarulhaq Mandal, a resident of Bajitpur village in Nadiya district of West Bengal, for his alleged terrorist links. A day later, with the assistance of the Maharashtra ATS, Shariat Mandal was arrested from Khalumbre village in Chakan area of Pune where he was working as a construction labourer.

Before coming to Pune on Tuesday, on Sunday, March 24, the Bihar ATS arrested two Bangladeshi nationals identified as Khairul Mandal and Abu Sultan from a motorcycle stand near Madni Musafirkhana located near Patna railway station. The arrested Bangladeshi nationals were residents of Chapatalla village of Jhenaidah district of Khulna division in Bangladesh.

Both Khairul Mandal and Abu Sultan were alleged to be members of banned terrorist outfit Jamiat-Ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh and later were part of a newly-formed group called ISIS Bangladesh (ISBD). After being interrogated by the Bihar ATS, they revealed the name of 19-year-old Shariat Mandal. This resulted in a series of events which led to Shariat’s arrest on Wednesday, March 27.

On March 28, Shariat was produced in court. He accepted he was in touch with two persons arrested in Patna. Shariat was then sent to Bihar on transit remand.

The news related to Shariat’s arrest broke on Thursday among journalists in Pune. Whatsapp messages related to the terror suspects began circulating among journalist groups as well as police groups.

Screenshots of the Whatsapp messages.

None of the messages, including two press releases in Hindi released by the Bihar ATS, made any mention of the suspects arrested in Pune and Patna being involved in the terrorist attack on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama.

Screenshots of the press releases.

On Friday morning, March 29, Pune Mirror—a tabloid owned by the Times Group—published a story headlined “ATS arrests Pulwama suspect”. The blurb read: “Shariat Anwar-ul-haq Mandal was held by Pune and Bihar teams in Chakan where he was working as a labourer; he is alleged to be involved in the terror attack on the CRPF convoy”.

Screenshot of the print version of the Pune Mirror report.

The article said Shariat Mandal was arrested after Khairul Mandal and Abu Sultan “revealed” his “whereabouts”. It stated: “Police suspect that the three accused might have had a role to play in the Pulwama terror attack which led to the martyrdom of 40 CRPF jawans.”

Screenshot of the online version of the Pune Mirror report.

In complete contradiction to Pune Mirror’s claims, the Bihar ATS emphatically denied that any of the three played a role in the Pulwama attack. To be precise, the Bihar ATS said: “They don’t have any role in Pulwama terror attack on CRPF convoy.”

Sushil Khopade, Inspector General of Police, Bihar ATS, told Newslaundry: “Overall, we have arrested three persons. The two arrested in Patna were identified as Khairul Mandal and Abu Sultan. Both of them are Bangladeshi nationals who sneaked into India around 14 months backs. They were roaming in India at various places like Gaya, Delhi and Patna. They were earlier in JMB and then formed a small group [in Bangladesh] by the name of ISBD after the rise of ISIS.” Khopade said ISBD is also a “mutant group” of JMB.

He said: “The third person who was arrested from Pune is their associate and is from Bengal. We recovered mobiles from them in which we have found some jihadi literature and a document on the movement of paramilitary—maybe of CRPF.”

When specifically asked if the three accused were suspected to have played any role in the Pulwama attack, Khopade said: “As per our investigation, we have found that they don’t have any role in the Pulwama terror attack on the CRPF convoy. Though we recovered some material related to the movement order of paramilitary from them, it is from after the attack in Pulwama. Our investigation will continue as they are still on remand but it doesn’t seem that they have any involvement in the Pulwama attack.”

Khopade said they obtained the name and location of the suspect arrested in Pune—Shariat Mandal—from Khairul Mandal and Abu Sultan. The ATS is investigating whether other people are associated with them as well.

Newslaundry spoke to Sunil Yadav, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Pune ATS, and asked about the role of the three arrested in the Pulwama attack. Yadav said: “This is the case of the Bihar ATS. They are doing a detailed investigation into the matter. As they are handling the case, we don’t have much detail on the matter, and are not privy to the investigation. Without completing the investigation, one cannot authenticate or come to any conclusion in such cases.”

Newslaundry sent a query to Sudipta Basu, resident editor of Pune Mirror, and were told Basu would respond by email. The story will be updated when they choose to respond.

On Thursday, March 28, The Hindu published a story online with a Pune dateline which said: “A team of Bihar anti-terrorist squad (ATS), aided by the Pune ATS, has arrested a Bangladeshi national alleged to be a terror suspect from Pune’s Chakan industrial area in connection with the Pulwama terror strike last month.” The Hindu reported that the arrested person is a Bangladeshi national—though the Bihar ATS said Shariat Mandal, the man arrested from Pune, is an Indian national from West Bengal.

Screenshot of The Hindu‘s online report.

Newslaundry contacted Vikas Dhoot, resident editor of The Hindu in Mumbai, and pointed out the factual errors in their report. Dhoot said he would check with his reporter and respond accordingly. The story will be updated when a reply is received.

It’s significant to note that at 8.26 pm on March 28, IANS also published a snippet with a Pune dateline, headlined “Pulwama terror attack suspect nabbed in Pune”. The piece quoted “official sources”.

Screenshot of the IANS report.