New Delhi, May 19
In another major embarrassment for the Government, a second “fugitive” in India’s most-wanted list handed over to Pakistan was today traced to a Mumbai jail, following which a CBI inspector was suspended and two of its senior officials transferred.

The CBI Inspector was suspended and an SP and a DSP transferred for the “lapse”, the agency announced after a preliminary inquiry.

India’s list of “50 most wanted” has the name of Feroz Abdul Khan, alias Hamza (51), an accused in 1993 Mumbai blast case, who was arrested from a village in Navi Mumbai in February last year and was handed over to the CBI for further investigation. The CBI had issued an Interpol Red Corner Notice against Khan in 1994 but the notice was not withdrawn even after the agency has got his custody.

“The CBI has conveyed to the Home Ministry that the lapse was on the agency’s part. When the CBI forwarded the list to the MHA, they forgot to delete the name of this person,” a Home Ministry spokesperson said.

Khan is alleged to have facilitated transport and distribution of arms and ammunitions during the blast and subsequently. The Mumbai police had alleged that following Dawood Ibrahim’s instructions, Khan arranged for landing of arms allegedly used in the blast.

“We are examining the matter and strict action will be initiated against erring officials,” CBI spokesperson Dharini Mishra said.

Earlier, Wazhur Kamar Khan, whose name had also figured in India's most wanted list, was traced in Mumbai, in the first case of the goof-up. In the third instance, the CBI had egg on its face when its team landed in Copenhagen to seek extradition of the main accused in the 1995 Purulia arms drop case Kim Davy with an expired arrest warrant.

The CBI admitted today there was a “slip up” over the issue of the arrest warrant that expired in January this year.

A two-member CBI team, which reached Copenhagen on May 16, was in for a surprise after Davy’s counsel pointed out during court proceedings there that the arrest warrant issued by a special CBI court in Kolkata against his client had expired in January this year.

A red-faced CBI is trying to find out how the Red Corner Notice warrant for Davy had a time limit for executing it as such warrants are generally issued by courts with an “open” time frame.

Accepting that it was a “slip up”, sources in the agency said the question of how this lapse took place would be looked into once the two-member team comes back from Copenhagen. A team of CBI had reached Denmark on May 16 to assist local authorities in the process of Davy’s extradition.

Normally, the warrants issued for Red Corner Notice cases are “open ended” with no time limit for executing them but the warrants issued in the case of Davy had a time limit till January this year.

Soon after the lapse was pointed out by Davy's lawyer, the agency officials sought fresh warrant from Special CBI court in Kolkata yesterday which were immediately dispatched to Copenhagen where a hearing was scheduled today.

“All documents are in order with the CBI team,” CBI spokesperson Dharini Mishra said today. A CBI official was earlier quoted as saying that an oversight had led its team to go to Denmark with an invalid warrant. Downplaying the issue, CBI (DIG) Arun Bothra said in Copenhagen: “I want to clarify that we coming here with an expired warrant or the live warrant is a non-issue.” “We thought, as an extra precaution, to have the warrant re-validated again,” said Bothra. — PTI