Wife of an activist of Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) has said that police have illegally detained her husband in connection with the serial blasts in Surat.

However, Ahmedabad police have denied the allegation.

Sazia, wife of Sajid Mansuri, a SIMI activist, told reporters in Surat that her husband was picked up by the Special Operations Group of Bharuch police from Lukman Society in Bharuch last Saturday and has been untraceable since then.

Meanwhile, Joint Commissioner of Police, Ahmedabad, Ashish Bhatia who is heading the investigations in the serial blasts case has denied having detained Mansuri.

“Nobody by the name of Sajid has been detained by us in connection with the serial blasts,” Bhatia said.

Bharuch District Superintendent of Police Subash Trivedi also denied picking up any man named Sajid.

Sazia, who came to her relative’s place in Surat last week said, “We were sleeping when the police team came at around 10 pm to our house and took Sajid with them. They gave me a contact number and asked me to call them after two days.”

“When I called up the number, I didn’t get clear answers,” she said adding that Sajid is innocent and has not done anything wrong.

In 2001, police had arrested 123 SIMI activists who had gathered for a meeting at Rajshree Cinema hall in Surat. Sajid was one of the participants of the meeting held after the outfit was banned in 2000. However, he had managed to escape the arrest and has been absconding since then.