Court sends KLF chief to 2 days judicial custody

NEW DELHI: Khalistani Liberation Force (KLF) chief Harminder Singh Mintoo was, on Monday, sent to judicial custody till December 14 by a Delhi Court when the Punjab Police plea for his transit remand to be considered.

Metropolitan Magistrate Satvir Singh Lamba sent the accused to Tihar Jail after the Delhi Police said they did not require him for further custodial interrogation, asking the probe agency to produce him before the court concerned on the next date of hearing.

After that, Punjab Police personnel moved a plea seek- ing Mintoo’s transit remand, claiming that they require him for unearthing the larger conspiracy. The plea will also be taken up on December 14.

The court had, on November 28, sent Mintoo to Delhi Police custody for seven days which was later extended till December 12.

The Delhi Police had earlier submitted that they needed his custody to know about the role of “insiders and outsiders” who assisted him and five others in fleeing from Nabha jail in Patiala.

It had said that the role of Inter-services Intelligence and some terror organisations was required to be probed in the case as he had also visited Pakistan.

According to the Delhi Police, one loaded pistol and six live cartridges were recovered from his possession. He was earlier a member of Babbar Khalsa International and later floated his own group, they said.

Mintoo was nabbed from a Delhi railway station, a day after he escaped with five other inmates from the prison.

Mintoo, who was wanted in ten terror cases, was arrested by Punjab Police after he was deported from Thailand in November 2014.