Aftab Alam alias Farooq, an alleged Pakistani national arrested from Purnia district in Bihar on December 6, was produced before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vinod Yadav who allowed the Delhi Police to quiz him till December 15.
During in-camera proceedings, the police sought seven days' custody for Aftab saying that he needs to be thoroughly interrogated to track his terror network and arrest his other accomplices. Earlier, the police had arrested six other alleged IM operatives, including another Pakistani national, in connection with a number of blast cases. (MORE) PTI AKI SKV
According to police, Aftab had entered Araria district in Bihar from Nepal a few months ago and visited Purnia district from where he was arrested. Aftab was brought to Delhi on transit remand.
On December 5, the court had also remanded in 14 days' police custody the six other suspected IM operatives. They are Mohammed Qatil Siddqui, Gohar Aziz Khumani, Mohammed Adil, Abdur Rehman, Mohammed Irshad and Gayur Ahmed Jamali.
All the seven persons have been accused of being involved in various terror cases, including Pune German Bakery blast, Bengaluru's Chinnaswamy Stadium blast and Jama Masjid shooting.
The Delhi police has said Siddiqui was arrested from Anand Vihar bus terminus here and his disclosure statements had led to the arrest of Adil, a Pakistani national, from Madhubani in Bihar. Khumani was also arrested in Delhi.
It has said that efforts have been intensified to nab 28-year-old Yasin Bhatkal alias Imran, who is allegedly the kingpin of the IM module.
The questioning of Siddiqui and Adil had led to the arrest of a 19-year-old engineering student Rehman, who was studying in Chennai, the prosecution has said, adding Irshad, a 52-year-old man from Chennai, and Jamali from Madhubani, were also arrested subsequently.
Bhatkal was allegedly in touch with Rehman till just four months back. Yasin hails from the coastal Karnataka town of Bhatkal and was out of the country for nearly two years prior to 2007.
Two AK-47 rifles along with 50 cartridges, one 9mm pistol along with 14 cartridges, 1.4 kgs of black explosive material, 3.2 kgs of white explosive material, 350 gms of granular off-white explosive material, 5 detonators and fake Indian currency notes with a face value of Rs two lakh along with other "incriminating" material have been recovered from the six arrested people, according to the prosecution.
Seventeen people were killed in the German Bakery blast February 13, last year and over 40 people have been arrested in the case. Fifteen people were injured in the blast outside Bangalore's Chinnaswamy Stadium during an IPL match on April 17, 2010.
Two Taiwanese tourists were injured in the firing at Jama Masjid on September 19, last year ahead of Commonwealth Games here but no one was hurt in the explosion in a car the same day.
