A Rapido bike rider who ferried passengers through the streets of Mumbai is at the centre of a terror-linked investigation after the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad's Kalachowki unit arrested him on suspicion of being an associate of the banned outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).
The arrest, carried out in a trap near the Mahim Metro station, has revived concerns about the use of innocuous day jobs and encrypted messaging platforms as cover for extremist activity in India's financial capital.
The arrested man has been identified as Mohammad Hasan Abu Sarmad Akhtar, aged 33. Investigators allege that Akhtar worked as a Rapido rider and also sold perfumes — occupations they believe were a front while he propagated radical ideology online and maintained links with extremist networks. All the allegations against him are still under investigation and have not been established in court.
According to investigators, the ATS acted on a tip-off received on October 21. After days of surveillance, the Kalachowki unit laid a trap near the Mahim Metro station, where Akhtar was taken into custody. Following initial questioning by the ATS, he was handed over to the Mahim police and placed in police custody as the probe widened.
The digital trail recovered from the suspect forms the backbone of the case. Investigators say Akhtar was the administrator of an active Telegram group that had two other members, and that two audio speeches by Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar were uploaded to the group on June 1 — one of them on the Babri Masjid issue.
He is also alleged to have been connected to a Pakistan-backed extremist Telegram channel called 'IBN-e-Qasim', a link investigators believe points to a cross-border dimension in the case.
His public-facing social media activity has also drawn scrutiny. Investigators preserved 39 screenshots as evidence of inflammatory posts and comments on Instagram and X, made between May 4 and October 18, on political and religious issues. Among them, officials flagged an objectionable comment posted on September 8 — during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Mumbai — that referenced the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Other posts concerning religious places allegedly carried a call for jihad.
The contents of his mobile phone have been sent for forensic examination. While initial checks of his WhatsApp and Facebook accounts found no objectionable material, investigators recovered what they describe as anti-national material from the phone itself. A full forensic analysis of the digital evidence is still underway, and officials say they are examining whether Akhtar was in direct contact with Pakistani intelligence operatives.
Kishor Pawar, senior police inspector at the Mahim police station, said the FIR against Akhtar has been registered under Section 196(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which deals with promoting enmity between different groups. The provision, which replaced the older law on promoting enmity under the Indian Penal Code, carries significant punishment if the charges are proven in court.
Officials have framed the arrest as part of a broader pattern of digital radicalisation. The combination of an everyday gig-economy job — ferrying passengers for a ride-hailing platform — and online propaganda is a profile that counter-terrorism experts have repeatedly flagged: low-cost, high-anonymity covers that make detection harder for agencies.
The arrest also comes months after a related crackdown. In July, the Gujarat ATS detained five alleged JeM operatives from Khadiyal village in the Siddhpur taluka of Patan district, Gujarat. Investigators in Maharashtra have not publicly stated whether the Mumbai case is connected to that operation, but the timing underscores sustained anti-terror vigilance against the outfit's networks.
For now, the agencies are working backward from the digital evidence to map Akhtar's network. Who were the two other members of the Telegram group? Who uploaded the Masood Azhar speeches, and at whose behest? Did the Pakistan-linked channel facilitate any real-world contact? These are the questions the ATS and the Mahim police will seek to answer as custody interrogation proceeds.
Security officials say the case highlights a shift in how extremist recruitment and propaganda now operate — not through large gatherings or visible networks, but through small, closed digital groups and seemingly ordinary public lives. The fact that the alleged propaganda material included audio sermons of a designated terrorist leader, shared on a mainstream messaging app, shows how far the digital footprint of such networks extends.
Jaish-e-Mohammed, the outfit Akhtar is alleged to be associated with, is a banned terrorist organisation led by Masood Azhar, who has been designated an international terrorist by the United Nations. The group has been on India's radar for decades, and Indian agencies have pursued its modules across several states over the years.
Against that backdrop, the Mumbai arrest is being read by officials as evidence that the outfit's recruiters and sympathisers continue to probe for footholds in urban centres, using digital tools that barely existed when the group was at its peak.
The case also puts the spotlight on the Kalachowki unit of the Maharashtra ATS, which led the operation. The ATS, raised in the aftermath of the 1993 Mumbai blasts, has handled several high-profile cases of alleged extremist activity in the state, from the 2006 train bombings investigations to more recent modules unearthed through online surveillance.
The unit's decision to set a physical trap near a busy metro station — rather than relying solely on digital surveillance — reflects the operational reality that online evidence alone rarely closes a case; investigators want the suspect in custody before the network can go dark.
Legal experts note that Section 196(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, under which the FIR has been registered, mirrors the offence of promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth and similar grounds — the provision that replaced Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code when the new criminal codes took effect.
It is the starting charge in such cases; whether the investigation eventually invokes stricter counter-terrorism provisions will depend on what the forensic examination of the phone and the interrogation record establish.
There is also the question of the two unidentified members of the Telegram group. Investigators will be keen to establish whether they were passive consumers of the uploaded audio sermons or active participants in any larger plan. The fact that the group had only three members, including the administrator, suggests it was either a nascent cell or a closed circle of trusted contacts — the kind of structure that is deliberately hard to infiltrate.
The Gujarat connection bears watching too. In July, the Gujarat ATS's detention of five alleged JeM operatives from Khadiyal village in Patan district's Siddhpur taluka signalled that the outfit's sympathiser networks were being probed across state lines.
Whether the Mumbai and Gujarat cases are linked by handlers, channels or ideology is something the agencies will have to determine — but the two operations, months apart, point to a sustained campaign rather than an isolated arrest.
For ordinary Mumbaikars, the arrest carries an unsettling subtext. The city has lived through the trauma of the 2008 attacks, and the idea that a routine Rapido ride could be given by someone moonlighting as an alleged extremist propagandist unsettles the trust that the gig economy depends on. Ride-hailing platforms, which rely on background checks of varying rigour, may now face fresh questions about how closely they vet their rider partners.
The coming days will be critical. The forensic report on the mobile phone, the identities behind the Telegram channel, and the interrogation record will determine whether the allegations harden into a charge sheet or remain at the level of suspicion. Until then, the case stands as a reminder that in the age of gig work and encrypted messaging, the ordinary face of a city can sometimes mask something far more sinister.
(Reporting based on India.com and Patrika.)