A local court on Thursday extended the police custody of Abu Jundal, the alleged Indian handler of the 26/11 terrorists’ team that carried out Mumbai attacks, by 15 days.
In the in-camera proceedings, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vinod Yadav denied granting the custody of 30-year-old Jundal to the Mumbai ATS, National Investigating Agency (NIA) and the CID saying that he was currently being interrogated by the city police’s special cell and the probe would help other agencies in their investigations too.
“In any case, I have a strong faith that the ongoing investigation of the special cell of the Delhi police is also going to help other investigating agencies, including the NIA, as they can always take clue from the special cell to develop their probe,” the court said.
He added: “I have given thoughtful consideration to the arguments advanced by all the agencies and out of all of them, I am impressed most with the case of special cell of the Delhi police wherein this accused has already been in custody for 15 days.”
The NIA had also sought Jundal’s custody saying that he was to be quizzed to prevent another 26/11-like terror attack.
The CID stated that they wanted to confront him with the lone survivor of the Mumbai blasts convict Ajmal Kasab.
Besides, the Pune ATS sought his custody on the grounds that the SC had directed that an expeditious trial be conducted in the Aurangabad arms haul case and the Mumbai ATS wanted to interrogate him in other terror cases.
In a major breakthrough in the 26/11 Mumbai attack case, Jundal, alias Syed Zabiuddin Ansari, was arrested on last Thursday by the special cell of the city police from the Indira Gandhi International Airport after he was deported from Saudi Arabia on India’s request.
He was later produced before the court on June 21 that sent him to 15 days police custody.