New Delhi:
After the embarrassing discovery in Mumbai of Wazhul Khan, a man on India's list of most wanted fugitives in Pakistan, NDTV has found another person on the list of 50 in India.This time lodged in Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail.
Feroz Abdul Rashid Khan, who figures at No. 24 on the list India handed over to Pakistan recently, is in jail for his role in the 1993 Mumbai blasts. Feroz's Lawyer Farhana Shah has confirmed to NDTV that her client is in prison facing trial.
(Watch: 'Goof-up is a blunder')Sources in the Home Ministry have told NDTV that the CBI has written to the ministry accepting its fault in the matter. The sources quoted the CBI as saying that although the accused was in their custody, the agency hadn't removed his name from the Red Corner Notice list and had also forwarded the same to the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Feroz, 51, was on the run after he was chargesheeted for playing a key role in the 1993 Mumbai blasts. According to the police, he had initially fled to Nepal but had later come back to India and had been living 'underground' in Navi Mumbai since 2003.
Feroz was arrested by the Crime Branch of the Mumbai Police and handed over to the CBI in February 2010. Shortly afterwards, the Mumbai CBI filed a supplementary chargesheet against him but failed to inform the CBI headquarters in Delhi about the arrest.
Thus, when the CBI sent the list of the most-wanted fugitives to the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Feroz's name was still on that list. IB then sent this list to the Ministry of Home Affairs, which in turn sent the list to Pakistan.
(India's list of 50 most-wanted fugitives)Khan's name still appears as a 'Wanted /Accused' on the CBI's own website . And the Interpol continues to post a red-corner notice against him, on the request of the CBI. A CBI Inspector had been suspended and a superintendent of police and deputy superintendent of police had been transferred, sources said. All are from the Interpol branch.
(Read: CBI accepts mistake)This latest error comes after the huge embarrassment over the goof-up over Wazhul Kamar Khan. His name was in India's most wanted list of fugitives in Pakistan but he was found to be living in Thane. His profile was dropped from the CBI's website on May 17 after the error was reported.
(Watch: Most-wanted list goof-up; fugitive lives in Thane)On Wednesday, Home Minister P Chidambaram accepted the inclusion of terror accused Wazhul Kamar Khan in the list of most-wanted fugitives given to Pakistan was a "mistake". He said it was a "genuine error" by Mumbai Police and an "oversight" by the Intelligence Bureau.
(Read: Chidambaram on Wazhul goof-up)"There was a mistake. We are not trying to blame anyone. We take responsibility for it," said Mr Chidambaram.
The Home Minister said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was not informed of Wazhul Khan's arrest by the Mumbai police. "It was also a lapse on the part of the Intelligence Bureau (IB)," admitted Mr Chidambaram.
(Watch)