Team Herald
PANJIM: Sameer Sardana, the Dehradun-based man who was arrested by Goa Police’s Anti-Terrorist Squad, said his arrest was a case of mistaken identity.
“I had checked into the guest house of Konkan Railway Corporation at Margao between January 11 and 13 when someone with the same name had lodged in the guest house of Indian Railways at Vasco,” Sardana told Herald, while leaving for Mumbai on his way to his native place.
Sardana (44) was arrested by Goa ATS and interrogated by the National Investigation Agency. He said that when he returned to Goa, he checked-in at the Railway Guest House at Vasco, where he was arrested.
“One policeman named Raya Naik approached me asking whether I was staying at Vasco between January 11 and 13. The register at the railway station had entry of one Sameer Sardana who had arrived by train from Vishakhapatnam,” Sardana said.
“The policeman was talking to me in broken English that is why I could not convince him that it was not me. The passport number mentioned in the register was different from that of mine. There are several people with the same name in India,” he said.
Sardana said his presence in Mumbai on January 10 can be established through his train ticket and the CCTV footage of Konkan Railway Guest house also confirms his presence there.
“The Vasco Guest House does not have CCTV camera to record the footage of the one who had lived there,” Sardana stated.
