Court sends Daesh-inspired suspects to 12-day custody
NEW DELHI — A Delhi court on Thursday remanded in police custody 10 people suspected of plotting suicide attacks in the New Delhi, while more investigations are carried out, a defence lawyer said.
Additional Sessions Judge Ajay Pandey allowed their 12-day police custody till January 8. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had demanded their custody for 15 days.
The members of the Daesh module, “Harkat-ul-Harb-e-Islam”, were presented in the court amid tight security. The NIA had arrested them on Wednesday, including the group leader, as they were allegedly planning terror attacks targeting some political personalities and security establishments as well as crowded places in Delhi and the national capital region.
The judge also allowed the family members of six of the accused to meet them in the court. However, one of the family members was denied the facility as he was not having his identity proof.
Earlier, the NIA had carried out searches at 17 places — six in East Delhi’s Jafarabad area, six in Uttar Pradesh’s Amroha, two each in Lucknow and Hapur and one place in Meerut.
Six others, who are suspected to be members of the group, have been detained and they are being questioned.
The agency had registered a case on December 20 under several sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Explosive Substances Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
A country-made rocket launcher, 12 pistols, 112 alarm clocks, 100 mobile phones, 135 SIM cards, many laptops and various electronic gadgets, besides 150 rounds of ammunition were also recovered during the searches.
The NIA also seized 25 kg of explosive material, such as potassium nitrate, ammonium nitrate, sulphur, sugar material paste, mobile phone circuits, batteries, 51 pipes, remote control car triggering switch, wireless digital doorbell for remote switch, steel containers, electric wires, knife, sword, Daeshrelated literature and Rs750,000 in cash.
The NIA said the cell was formed three months ago and identified the main suspect as a 29-year-old cleric. The cleric was working at a religious school in Amroha town, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh,
The accused include three Delhi students, three shopkeepers and an auto-rickshaw driver. The agency arrested the mastermind Mufti Mohammad Suhail, 29; Saeed, 28; Raees Ahmed; Saqib Iftekar, 26; and Mohammad Irshad from Amroha.
Among the other accused are Anas Yunus, 24, a B. Tech student of Amity University in Noida, Rashid Zafar Raq, 23; Zubair Ma- lik, 20; and his brother Zaid Malik, 22; and Mohammad Azam, 35; from Delhi’s Jafarabad area.
M.S. Khan, a lawyer representing the accused, told the court they were innocent. “There is a lot of fabrication. My clients are innocent,” Khan said. —