Himesh Mankad (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 10, 2019)

During the trailer launch, the team of India’s Most Wanted had admitted that the upcoming film is inspired by a true story of five unlikely officers from Bihar who captured one of India’s most dreaded terrorists, without a single bullet being fired. The man dubbed ‘India’s Osama’ had, over a span of six years, from 2007 to 2013, master-minded 52 blasts across several Indian cities, including Jaipur, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Pune. Ever since, speculations have centered around the subject of director Raj Kumar Gupta’s story of an undercover stakeout. The production studio, Fox Star, director Gupta, leading man Arjun Kapoor and everyone associated with the project have however remained tight-lipped on the subject.

Now, Mirror has learnt that Yasin Bhatkal, the founder of Indian Mujahideen, is the yet-unnamed terrorist. In 2013, the Indian Government had announced a Rs 3.50 crore reward for anyone who could provide details of his location or help in his capture. At 30, Bhatkal is believed to be responsible for more than 220 deaths across India and figures on the ‘Most Wanted’ list of 12 states, including Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

The mission kicked off when an IB official received information from one of his ‘key human assets’ that Bhatkal, in the guise of a doctor, was stationed in Nepal. Soon after, the officer got clearance from the joint director of the Intelligence Bureau in Patna to go after the ‘Ghost Who Bombs’. Arjun’s character, Prabhat Kumar, is based on a real-life IB officer who led the mission with other members of the Patna police, played by Prashanth Alexander, Asif Khan, Devendra Mishra and Praveen Sisodiya. Rajesh Sharma enacts the role of the Arjun’s superior. The joint mission of the Special Operations Group, Intelligence Bureau and the Bihar police which led to the arrest of Bhatkal on August 29, 2013, is described as a ‘victory of human intelligence’ as it was accomplished without any gunfire or turbulence to normal civilians. Bhatkal is currently serving out his lifetime imprisonment sentence at prison no. 2 of Delhi’s Tihar Jail.

“The officers of the mission didn’t get their due acknowledgement back then and the film is a tribute to the unsung heroes of our country. The characters have been fictionalised but the genesis of the idea came from this historic mission that led to the capture of the terrorist,” the source concluded.