Kazmi urges resumption of hearing in sessions court

Journalist Syed Mohammad Kazmi, arrested for his alleged role in Feb 13 Israeli embassy car blast here, urged the Delhi High Court Wednesday to order the resumption of hearing on his plea in a sessions court.

Kazmi's counsel Mehmood Pracha moved an application before Justice Manmohan, requesting to resume the hearing on his criminal revision petition in the court of Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) S.S. Rathi.

The petition said: "The (high court's) order dated July 2 may be modified to the extent that the proceedings in the criminal revision before Judge Rathi be allowed to continue on issues apart from the competence of the CMM (chief metropolitan magistrate) to grant/extend the custody in the said matter."

The high court July 2 suspended the hearing and the June 8 order of the ASJ who had questioned the magistrate's power to extend the judicial or police custody of an accused under the anti-terror law.

Kazmi in his revision petition, filed before the ASJ, challenged the magistrate court order that granted to police an additional 90 days for investigation.

He was arrested March 6 for his alleged involvement in the embassy car bombing. Four people were injured when an Israeli embassy car was struck by a bomb near the Prime Minister's House in central Delhi.

Tal Yehoshua Koren, 42, wife of Israeli defence attache Colonel Yossi Refaelov, suffered multiple injuries when a motorcycle rider attached a magnetic explosive device to her car and sped away.