Cops didn't verifiy 'terrorist tenants' for month

New Delhi: The tenant verification forms for the men killed, arrested or escaped in Friday's shootout in the Capital have been gathering dust with the police for a month. Every landlord is obliged to submit these forms so that the police can check the antecedents of the tenants.

Police officials are now wondering if the September 13 terrorist attacks on the Capital, which killed 20 people and injured over 100, could have been prevented if their men had done their job on time. The men involved in the shootout are suspected to be behind the five bomb blasts.

The police top brass are now investigating why their men had not yet checked out the tenants in flat L-18 on the fourth floor of Batla House.

A copy of the form submitted to Jamia Nagar police station by a man called Rehman on behalf of house owner Mohsin Nisar is available with IANS. It says that five people - Zeeshan Ahmed, Mohammed Shahid, Mohammed Saif, Mohammed Khalid and Atif - had taken the flat on August 15.

The verification form was submitted to police on August 21.

The tenant verification process is supposed to take a week.

"The verification process takes a week's time and the delay is being investigated," Delhi Police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat said.

Nisar had reportedly purchased the three-bedroom house from Idrish Mian, a PWD contractor in New Delhi, about six months ago for Rs 3 lakh and rented it out to a lecturer and two students without verifying their antecedents.

Since Nisar was staying in Raj Nagar area of Ghaziabad - a satellite town of the capital - his stenographer Rehman was taking care of the house. Rahman lived in Jamia Nagar. Atif was introduced to Rehman's son Zia by another friend as a student of Jamia Milia University.

On Zia's request, Rehman rented the house to Atif and submitted an application for tenant verification to police.

Mohammed Atif and Mohammed Shahid were killed in the shootout, while Mohammed Saif was arrested Friday. Zeeshan Ahmed was not present during the shootout, but arrested later from Jhandewalan. Two other men who were in the flat at that time have escaped.