6 suspected IM operatives to be in police custody for 10 days

Six suspected Indian Mujahideen (IM) operatives, arrested for their alleged roles in various terror attacks across India, were today remanded in police custody for 10 days by a Delhi court.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vinod Yadav sent all the six, arrested from various places in the country during last week of November and brought here on transit remand, to police custody after they were produced in his court here.

CMM Yadav rejected the plea of the Delhi Police that the suspects should be in its custody for 14 days.

The six are Mohammed Qatil Siddqui, Gohar Aziz Khumani, Mohammed Adil, Abdur Rehman, Mohammed Irshad and Gayur Ahmed Jamali.

They have been accused of being involved in various terror cases, including Pune German Bakery blast, Bangalore's Chinnaswami Stadium blast, Jama Masjid shooting and September 7 Delhi High Court blast.

The proceedings before the CMM were held in-camera.

Siddiqui and Khumani were produced in the court after the expiry of their three days of police custody, while the four others were produced for the first time.

They are in the custody of a special team constituted by the Delhi Police to work out various unsolved terror cases.

According to the police, Siddiqui was arrested from Anand Vihar bus terminus here and his disclosure statements had led to the arrest of Adil, a Pakistani national, from Madhubani in Bihar. Khumani was also arrested in Delhi.

"All the members of the Indian Mujahideen terror modules were subjected to intensive interrogation. Their interrogation revealed that this module is involved in Pune German Bakery blast, Bangalore's Chinnaswamy Stadium blast and Jama Masjid shooting," the police had said.

The police said it has intensified efforts to nab a seventh person, 28-year-old Yasin Bhatkal alias Imran, who is allegedly the kingpin of the module.

The questioning of Siddiqui and Adil had led to the arrest of a 19-year-old engineering student Rehman, who was studying in Chennai, the police had said, adding Irshad, a 52-year-old man from Chennai, and Jamali from Madhubani, were also arrested subsequently.

Bhatkal was allegedly in touch with Rehman till just four months back. Yasin hails from the coastal Karnataka town of Bhatkal and was out of the country for nearly two years prior to 2007.

Two AK-47 rifles along with 50 cartridges, one 9mm pistol along with 14 cartridges, 1.4 kgs of black explosive material, 3.2 kgs of white explosive material, 350 gms of granular off-white explosive material, 5 detonators and fake Indian currency notes with a face value of Rs two lakh along with other "incriminating" material have been recovered from the six arrested people, police had said.

Seventeen people were killed in the German Bakery blast and over 40 people have been arrested in this case.

15 people were injured in the blast outside Bangalore's Chinnaswamy Stadium during an IPL match on April 17, 2010.

Two Taiwanese tourists were injured in the firing at Jama Masjid on September 19, last year ahead of Commonwealth Games here but no one was hurt in the explosion in a car the same day.

A senior police official told media persons outside the courtroom that ther custody was required for further interrogation.

The accused have to be taken to Bihar, Karnataka and other places in the country to make further recoveries and arrests.

The official said that alleged mastermind and Pakistan national Yasin Bhatkal alias Imran alias Shahrukh is absconding and their custodial interrogation is required to nab him to learn about more such designs.

Over two hours before the alleged IM operatives were brought to the court with covered faces, police sanitised the courtroom and its premises with sniffer dogs and bomb detection squad. A heavy security net was cast around the courtroom.