NEW DELHI, May 1: Suspected Hizbul militant Liyaqat Shah was today remanded in judicial custody till May 13 by a Delhi court after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) said that he was not required for further custodial interrogation.
Shah was arrested by the special cell of Delhi Police on March 20 in connection with a case registered against him for allegedly conspiring to carry out terror attacks in the national capital.
During an in-chamber hearing, Shah was produced before District Judge I S Mehta after expiry of five days NIA custody and the agency said the accused should be remanded to judicial custody as he was not required for any further interrogation, court sources said.
“Accused (Shah) be sent to judicial custody till May 13, 2013,” the court said.
The court had on April 26 allowed the agency’s plea and remanded Shah in NIA’s custody for five days after the investigators had said that they need to take Shah to Sunauli border, one of India-Nepal crossing points near Gorakhpur, from where he was allegedly arrested.
The court, while remanding Shah to judicial custody, asked Tihar Jail authorities to provide him the medicines which have been prescribed to him by the doctors during his treatment.
45-year-old Shah had earlier alleged in the court that he had been beaten up and tortured by the officials of special cell of Delhi Police during his custody following his arrest.
The Home Ministry had on March 28 issued a notification facilitating NIA to take over the case related to Shah after his arrest had generated conflicting versions from Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir police.
On April 2, NIA was allowed by the court to interrogate Shah in Tihar Jail till April 30.
While Delhi Police had claimed that with Shah’s arrest they had foiled a ‘fidayeen’ (suicide) attack in the national capital ahead of Holi, the J-K Police insisted that he was one of those who had exfiltrated in 1990s and returned to India to surrender under the state’s rehabilitation policy.
The police had earlier said Shah, a resident of Jammu and Kashmir, was apprehended from Indo-Nepal border area near Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh and had told his interrogators that he is a trained militant of banned terror group Hizbul Mujahideen and was settled in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK).
Police had said that Shah and his associate Manzoor, a resident of J&K, were directed by top ranks of Hizbul to carry out terror attacks in Delhi.
It had said that based on inputs given by Shah, a huge consignment of arms, hand grenades and explosive material were recovered from a guest house in Jama Masjid area here. It had said that his associates, including Manzoor, are absconding.
Delhi Police said a case was registered under sections 120 B(criminal conspiracy), 121 (waging war against government of India), 121A (conspiracy to commit offences against the State) and 123 (concealing with intent to facilitate design to wage war) of IPC against them.
According to Delhi Police, Shah had planned attacks to avenge the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.
J-K Police, however, had supported the claims of Shah’s family that he was a former militant who had surrendered before SSB on the Nepal border and was in a group returning from PoK under the rehabilitation policy. (PTI)
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