Vinu Varghese has no terrorist links: Police

KOCHI: Police have clarified that Vinu Varghese, arrested in connection with a scuffle case, had no terrorist links as reported in a section of the media.Police said a warrant was pending against Vinu in a crime registered with Kannamaly police here in 2004, of entering into a scuffle with his uncle at the latter's house. "We had executed a long-pending warrant and arrested him as part of the pre-election drive. He was produced before the JFCM court on and remanded in judicial custody", Mattancherry circle inspector M V Manikandan said.Police said Vinu and his mother had converted to Islam and he was now known as Afsal Vinu. When this warrant was executed, police had received an input that the mother of the accused was working at the residence of a doctor in Thrissur. "We made telephone calls to the residence of several doctors. One of the doctors promised to help us. By this time, false information had leaked to the media," Manikandan said.Police said they had no clue on how these telephone calls triggered reports that Vinu was arrested for his links with the arrested Indian Mujahideen terrorist Zia-Ur-Rehman alias Waqas, a Pakistani national, who had reportedly stayed in Munnar.