KOCHI:The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday got custody of M K Nazar, suspected mastermind behind hand chopping incident, for eight days from NIA Court in Kochi. S Santhosh Kumar, Judge, NIA Court after hearing the custody petition filed by the NIA granted custody of third accused M K Nazar to NIA from Wednesday 3 pm to November 19, 11 am.
NIA counsel P G Manu submitted that the accused had to be interrogated for tracing the other accused who are still at large. The NIA submitted that custody of 10 days was required as the accused was well trained and had to be taken to different places, including Karnataka, for evidence collection.
In the petition filed by the NIA, it was stated that Nazar was in touch with absconding accused - Savad, Sijil and Asiz. Evidences including mobile phone of the accused have to be recovered
However, defence counsel, P C Noushad argued that there were possibilities of custodial torture if he were handed over for a long period.
There are no reports filed by the NIA against Nazar and custody of the accused is not required at this stage.
The NIA approached Ernakulam Sub Jail and took Nazar into custody. He was moved to an unidentified place for interrogation.
The bail application for Nazar filed last week was withdrawn on Monday after the NIA filed a petition for his custody.
Nazar surrendered before the NIA court on Friday after absconding for more than five years. A few yeas ago, the NIA declared a reward on him and a non-bailable arrest warrant was pending against him. In April this year, the NIA Court completed the trial of 31 accused in the case.
After the controversy over the blasphemous reference of Prophet Muhammad in the question paper set by professor T J Joseph for second semester BCom of Newman College, Thodupuzha on March 23, 2010, Nazar and four others decided to commit the terrorist act as a revenge.
Nazar allegedly deputed two other accused to prepare the sketch of the route to the professor’s house. He entrusted weapons, explosives and mobile phones to the assailants. He allegedly coordinated the entire operation through mobile phone for the attack of T J Joseph on July 4, 2010 and harboured several accused after the attack.