A Delhi court on Monday extended the National Investigation Agency’s custody of five of the 10 people arrested on suspicion of being members of an Islamic State-inspired group, PTI reported. On December 27, a Delhi court had sent 10 people who were arrested the day before by the National Investigation Agency to police custody for 10 days.
The agency had claimed to have conducted raids in 17 locations in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh and detained 16 people, suspected to be members of a terror module inspired by the Islamic State group, called Harkat ul Harb-e-Islam. The agency said the group was planning bomb blasts targeting politicians and government installations in Delhi and other parts of north India.
The court remanded the remaining five accused to judicial custody after the investigating agency said they did not need them for custodial interrogation.
The National Investigation Agency has custody of Mufti Mohammed Suhail and Saqib Iftekar till January 12 and Zubair Malik, Rashid Zafar Raq and Anas Yunus until January 10. The accused’s advocate opposed the agency’s plea for further custodial interrogation on the grounds that there was no fresh evidence.
Special Judge Rakesh Syal ordered in-camera proceedings of the hearing.
The investigators claimed to have seized a locally-made rocket launcher, material for suicide vests, 12 pistols, several rounds of live ammunition, 112 alarm clocks to be used as timers, 25 kg of explosive material – Potassium Nitrate, Ammonium Nitrate and Sulphur, steel containers, electric wires, 91 mobile phones, 134 SIM cards, three laptops, and Islamic State in Iraq and Syria-related literature, PTI reported.
The agency said Rs 7.5 lakh in cash was also recovered during the searches.
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