The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and Mumbai Crime Branch have traced suspected terrorist Sarfaraz Menon with the help of the Indore police. The National Investigating Agency (NIA), in an email on Sunday, alerted the Mumbai Police about Menon, claiming that he is a dangerous person for India as he had undergone terror training in Pakistan, China, and Hong Kong. According to the agency, he had returned to India and he is suspected of planning a terror activity. Following this, all local police stations were alerted while the crime branch and ATS started tracing the accused based on documents of his that were provided by the NIA.

The agencies have found that Menon had stayed in Hong Kong for a while and had also visited mainland China. Officials have said that since 2016, he has made multiple visits to both places and some travel details aren’t there in his passport. “He is being thoroughly interrogated by the Indore police, and if we see anything wrong, we will take strong action against him,” Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra said.

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According to sources, after receiving information, the Maharashtra ATS contacted the Indore police and Menon’s family was detained. Late on Monday, Menon went to a police station in Indore and he has been interrogated by various agencies.

“Our teams are in Indore and trying to get certain clarity about his visits to a foreign nation and his visit to Mumbai,” an officer from Maharashtra ATS said without revealing much about why NIA termed Menon a dangerous person. Officials have received information that he has been trained to carry out terror activities. However, the ATS and crime branch remained tight-lipped about the claims made by the NIA.

The Indore Police’s DCP (Intelligence) Rajat Saklecha, has said that Menon has claimed that he had been in Hong Kong since 2003 and got his passport renewed in 2006 from the Indian Embassy. In 2016, he again got a new passport after returning to India. The officer also said that they are verifying Menon’s claim that he is divorcing a Hong Kong woman and that she is behind an email that was sent to the NIA, based on which the alert was generated.

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