NEW DELHI: A Delhi court today extended by six days the ED custody of alleged hawala dealer Mohammad Aslam Wani, arrested in connection with a decade-old money laundering case involving Kashmiri separatist Shabir Shah.
Duty Magistrate Pankaj Sharma allowed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to interrogate Wani till August 20 after the agency's special public prosecutor N K Matta sought 10 days custody.
During the in-chamber proceedings, advocate M S Khan, appearing for Wani, opposed the plea and moved an application alleging that the accused was compelled to sign certain documents by the ED.
Wani was arrested on August 6 by the ED, after a sessions court here had issued an open-ended non-bailable warrant (NBW) against him, and was sent to eight-day ED custody.
An open-ended NBW, unlike the NBW, does not carry a time limit for its execution.
According to an official, Wani, 36, was arrested from Srinagar by the ED with the help of the state police. The agency had issued multiple summonses for his appearance in the case but he did not appear before it.
Shabir Shah was arrested by the agency from Srinagar on July 26.The ED action against the two is in pursuance of an August 2005 case, in which the Delhi Police's Special Cell had arrested Wani, who allegedly claimed he had passed on Rs 2.25 crore to Shah.
In 2010, a Delhi court had cleared Wani of terror funding charges but had convicted him under the Arms Act.
The ED had registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Shah and Wani.
Wani was arrested allegedly with Rs 63 lakh, received through hawala channels from the Middle East, and a large cache of ammunition, on August 26, 2005.
During questioning, he had told the police that an amount of Rs 50 lakh was to be delivered to Shah and Rs 10 lakh to Jaish-e-Mohammad area commander in Srinagar, Abu Baqar, and that the rest was his commission, it was claimed.