NEW DELHI, Jan 10:
One of the alleged Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operatives, whose arrest and purported connection with Muzaffarnagar region has created a controversy, was today remanded to five-day police custody by a Delhi court.
28-year-old Rashid was produced before Additional Sessions Judge Daya Prakash after expiry of his police custody and the special cell of Delhi Police sought extension of his remand saying he has to be taken to Rajasthan and Haryana to nab his associates.
“It is submitted that further examination of accused Rashid is required for the purpose of confronting him with the call details/conversations and the facts that have emerged after the examination of witnesses. Accused Rashid is also to be taken to Haryana and Rajasthan to apprehend his other associates,” the special cell said.
The police also said the probe into the case was at a “very initial stage” and further custodial interrogation of Rashid was required to unearth the deep-rooted conspiracy of the accused and his associates.
“Therefore, in the light of the above facts and to unearth the deep-rooted conspiracy of accused Rashid and his associates to threaten the unity, integrity and security of India, police custody remand of accused Rashid may please be extended for five days in the interest of justice,” it said.
Advocate M S Khan, who appeared for Rashid, opposed the police’s plea saying no new facts have emerged on which his client was required to be interrogated further.
Khan also apprised the court that a letter has been sent by Rashid and another accused to Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde requesting him to transfer the case from the special cell of Delhi Police to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
The court allowed the plea of police and sent Rashid to police custody till January 15.
Rashid was arrested by the special cell on December 16 last year while Shahid, also alleged to be a LeT operative, was apprehended on December 7 last year in connection with the case. Shahid is now in judicial custody and was last produced before the court on January 7.
Both Rashid and Shahid had yesterday written a letter to the Home Minister urging him to transfer the case to NIA saying the matter requires a “thorough and fair” investigation as there were loopholes in the version of Special Cell of Delhi Police.
In the letter, Advocate Khan has referred to a speech given by Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on October 24 last year at Indore when he had said that “an officer of Intelligence Bureau had briefed him about the infiltration of ISI in relief camp in Muzaffarnagar for the purpose of recruitment of youngsters.”
“This matter requires a thorough and fair investigation as these two persons have been made scapegoats,” the letter has said, adding NIA was set up for taking up the probe of matters having national ramifications.
“Under the NIA Act, 2008, the Central Government is vested with the power to direct investigation of scheduled offences by NIA and in the facts and circumstances, it is a fit case for exercising such powers by the Government…,” it had said, requesting the Home Minister to transfer the case to NIA for an “impartial” probe.
The special cell had recently said that Rashid and Shahid had met two people in Muzaffarnagar region.
Delhi Police’s Special Commissioner of Special Cell S N Shrivastava had told the media that suspected LeT operatives had met Muzaffarnagar residents Liyakat and Zameerul Islam in connection with mobilising funds for construction of a mosque.
With the arrest of these two suspected LeT operatives from Haryana’s Mewat region, the police had last month claimed to have busted a terror module of LeT which was in an “advanced stage” of planning a militant strike in Delhi. (PTI)
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