simulia burdwan the twostorey building overlooking krishna bati school at simulia in burdwan looks like a palace amid clusters of mud housesconstruction of the house owned by khagragarh blast mastermind moulana yusuf was completed only a month ago when he was on the runafter october 2 2014 when the improvised explosive devices went off at khagragarh yusuf disappeared with his wife leaving behind his parents and two brothers at their old house nobody in the village knew who funded the construction of his new house nor do they have any clue about the funding of the madrassa at nigan chawk which yusuf was developingone of his brothers work in kerala they have some land also they must have saved some money said sheikh imran a neighbourthe villagers tightlipped about yusuf rather projected him to be a dogooder who used to run a religious training centre for poor kids at simulia he has always been a softspoken man who preached morality and ideologies said kajal sheikh a villagersheikhs house is barely twenty metres from the spot where yusuf s madrassa is located he did not even accept any money from us whenever we mentioned about donations he refused sheikh saidbut where did he get the money from to run the madrassa which doubled up as a resi dential unit for the girl students yusuf had told us that they worked outside when they were not taking classes another villager alam sheikh said however he never bothered to ask about the nature of the job yusuf was into he was a religious man why should i suspect his intentions sheikh asked he never allowed anyone to enter the premises of madrassa nor did he speak much about himself he addedyusuf continued his studies till classviii at krishna bati school after which he left the village to study religion in uttar pradesh nobody knew where he had gone his parents told us that he had gone to study religion somewhere in up when he came back after a few years he was a changed person said one of his friends who did not want to divulge his identity i should not be talking much he had always been nice to us he said before leaving in a huff meanwhile a source said yusuf was not shar ing a good relationship with his father and separated his kitchen after returning from up back at krishna bati both the houses of yusuf have become hotspots for the local kids kon bari jabe purono na notun which house would you like to go the old one or the new asked a kid the old mud house is the place where his parents and brothers livebut his family members pushed everyone out baire jan ekhuni ke aste bolechhego out who has asked you to come in said his brother nazrul as yusuf s mother mausma bibi joined nazrul his father kept watching the proceedings from the secondfloor room of the new house located just opposite