NEW DELHI, Sep 6: A court here today ordered ten-day police custody for Ajaz Shaikh, a suspected top Indian Mujahideen (IM) operative arrested in connection with a case relating to allegedly setting up of an illegal arms factory here by members of the banned outfit.
27-year-old Shaikh, brother-in-law of Pakistan-based absconding top IM operative Mohsin Chaudhary, was produced before the court and Special Cell of Delhi Police sought his custodial interrogation for 15 days saying he was required to be quizzed to ascertain the identities of other members of the outfit.
“Sustained interrogation of accused Ajaz Shaikh is to be carried out to ascertain his involvement, identify the other members of IM involved in terrorist activities of the outfit and to unearth the entire conspiracy being hatched by the members of the outfit,” the police said.
It claimed that the accused, arrested from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh on the basis of a tip-off, has disclosed that he “is an active member of IM and had been involved in several terrorist activities of the outfit for the past several years”.
The police told the court that one laptop, mobile phones, SIM cards and pen drives have been recovered from him and he has disclosed that he was working under the instructions of Chaudhary and IM co-founders Iqbal Bhatkal and Riyaz Bhatkal who are based in Pakistan.
“The analysis of the laptop, mobile phones and pen drives recovered from the accused is to be conducted and accused is to be confronted with the same to extract information about the future plans of the outfit. The absconding members of IM are to be identified and traced at his instance,” it said.
Advocate M S Khan and Akram Khan, appearing for Shaikh, opposed the plea filed by police saying that his name has not figured anywhere during the investigation till date and he was arrested only because he was brother-in-law of Chaudhary.
After hearing the arguments, the court remanded Shaikh, a resident of Pune in Maharashtra, to 10 days police custody.
The special cell had earlier arrested various suspected IM men, including its co-founder Yasin Bhatkal, in connection with the case for allegedly setting up the arms factory from where huge quantity of arms and ammunition were recovered.
The police had filed its charge sheet against various accused, including alleged IM operative Quateel Siddiqui who died in Pune’s Yerawada central jail on June 8, 2012.
It had alleged that the accused had set up the arms manufacturing factory in Meer Vihar area of Nangloi in Outer Delhi for manufacturing arms and ammunition to carry out terrorist activities in Delhi and other parts of the country.
Police had in November, 2011 busted the factory located in Meer Vihar and several alleged IM suspects were arrested.
Police had earlier said the weapons manufacturing unit had equipment like moulding, cutting, assembling, drilling and grinding machines besides explosives and rocket launchers. (PTI)
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