BHUBANESWAR: Even as national agencies and police of other States have queued up for their custody, the Special Task Force (STF) is unlikely to seek an extension of remand of the five operatives of Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) who were arrested from Rourkela on February 17.
Sk Mehboob, Zakir Hussain, Amzad Khan, Md Saleq and Nazma Biwi, who were on a 13-day remand of the STF, would be taken to Rourkela on Monday. They would be produced before a local court on Tuesday.
However, the STF will not seek further remand. “At present, their physical presence is not required for our investigation. If the need arises in the future, we may apply for fresh custody,” sources said.
Meanwhile, National Investigation Agency (NIA), Telangana, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra Police are seeking their remand and have submitted petitions before the court.
The four male members are charged with a series of terror and Jihadi activities across the country. Their connection with terror outfits outside India have also been established.
However, going by the interrogation reports, they did not plan any terror acts in Odisha which they used as a shelter place.
“They confessed that since the Muslim community is in harmony and there is no persecution, the State presented an excellent hiding place,” sources said.
However, they had planned a series of heists in the State to raise money for sustenance as well as to support other outfits of SIMI.
During interrogation, the security agencies found that they considered the booty collected from the series of robberies was ‘maal-e-ghanimat’ (spoils of the war) which they shared with others.