Ahmedabad blasts: Nine days remand for prime accused

The prime accused responsible for the Ahmedabad serial bomb blasts case in 2008, Mohammad Shahid Nagori, was remanded to nine days police custody by a local court on Monday.

Nagori, a member of Student Islamic Movement of India and an alleged Indian Mujahedeen operative, was arrested by Madhya Pradesh Police on May 3 from Ujjain and handed over to a Gujarat Police team led by Deputy Commissioner of police (crime) Himanshu Shukla on transit remand.

The police team had produced Nagori before Metropolitan Magistrate K R Pandya and sought 14-day custody as it wanted to interrogate him on his alleged role in the 2008 serial blasts and know the whereabouts of other 25 absconding.

Assistant Commissioner of police K N Patel, said that Nagori was trained for terrorist activities at a ‘Jehadi camp’ in the Vagamon forests of Kerala. He also said that one of the accused Amer Parvez, who was arrested earlier and now an under-trial at Sabarmati Central Jail, had revealed the presence of Nagori at the Vagamon Jehadi training camp.

With the arrest of Nagori, the number of arrested has gone up to 74. Another 24 accused, including Riaz and Iqbal Bhatkal, are still wanted. About 56 persons were killed and over 100 were injured in 21 bomb blasts that stuck Ahmedabad on July 26, 2008, within a span of 70 minutes.