Police said Bagwan had followed Riyaz Bhatkal’s instructions had rented a flat each at Ashoka Mews in Kondhwa, where the IM set up a control room, and Kamaldeep Park, opposite the first flat.

According to the Mumbai police, Bagwan deposited Rs 30,000 for the Ashoka Mews flat in 2007 and paid Rs 9,000 as rent. For the other flat, taken in 2005, he made no deposit and paid Rs 2,800 per month. Police suspect that Bagwan got the money from the Bhatkal brothers. Police said before the Ashoka Mews flat became the control room, the Kamaldeep Park served as an office for holding meetings, storing weapons and sheltering IM men. Jehadi literature was seized from the flat, said Joint Commissioner (Crime) Rakesh Maria of Mumbai police said.

The neighbourhood was tense on Wednesday when this correspondent visited E-building of Kamaldeep Park. “The incident has tarnished the name of our society. Police and journalists are coming all the time,” said a resident. He refused to say what know of Bagwan, saying, “We have given all details to the police.”Meanwhile, Dr Nirmala Borade, Dean of Bagwan’s alma mater B J Medical College, said the latter graduated in 2000. Bagwan joined Arabic classes in Pune in 2006, when he came in contact with software engineer Mohammed Mansoor Asghar Ali Peerbhoy, later arrested from Ashoka Mews. Maria said the IM’s Asif Ali Sheikh had spotted Bagwan at the Arabic class and indoctrinated him.