12 IM men remanded in judicial custody

A special MCOCA court on Monday remanded 12 alleged Indian Mujahideen operatives in judicial custody till November 17.

Their custody has been given to the property cell of the crime branch, which is investigating the “terror mail” sent to media houses just before the recent Ahmedabad and Delhi blasts. An Esplanade metropolitan magistrate court had earlier remanded them in police custody till November 10.

The Delhi police had also sought the custody of some of the IM operatives on Monday.
Earlier, the Surat police had moved an application seeking custody of some of them.
But, the special court remanded the 12 suspects in the custody of the crime branch, since it is still investigating the case.

Three accused - Fazal-e-Rehman Durani, Ahmed Bawa Abubakar and Syed Naushad - had retracted their confessions last Wednesday, saying they were recorded under duress.

Naushad had also alleged that he had lost his hearing due to “torture” by the crime branch officers. The court had ordered that Naushad be sent to an ENT specialist for examination.

The crime branch, however, did not take him to a hospital, prompting the special court to pass fresh directions on Monday to take Naushad to a specialist. On November 5, the special court will hear the application of another suspect, Mansoor Peerbhoy, an employee of Yahoo!, who wants to turn an approver.

The crime branch has arrested 20 people in the case of which 12 have given confessional statements to the police.
dnacity@dnaindia.net