JOIN USThe Delhi Police’s Special Cell, its anti-terror unit, obtained custody of Indian Mujahideen co-founder Yasin Bhatkal and his aide Asadullah Akhtar on Monday, a month after their first arrest.
The special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court sent them to the Delhi Police custody for 15 days after allowing the Special Cell's plea to arrest them formally and interrogate them. The accused were remanded in police custody till November 12.
District Judge I S Mehta allowed the Special Cell to arrest Bhatkal and his aide after they were produced before it by NIA Hyderabad, which said the accused are no more required for interrogation.
On behalf of the accused, advocate M S Khan opposed the police custody plea, saying that they have already been investigated by the NIA, and that the Special Cell has no locus standi to seek their custody afresh.
Khan added that both accused have told him they were forced by NIA officials to make confessions. “They were threatened to being killed in an encounter or even in jail if they didn't confess,” he said outside the court. Bhatkal and Akhtar were arrested on September 21 by the NIA near the Indo-Nepal border, and then taken to Patna.
Thereafter, they were brought to Delhi and then taken to Hyderabad for investigation into the Dilsukhnagar blast case, in which 16 people were killed.
In court, the Special Cell officer said that in November 2011, they had busted an illegal arms factory in Outer Delhi's Meer Vihar and arrested 14 terror suspects, including Bhatkal father-in-law. But Bhatkal managed to give them the slip and had been absconding since.
“We had registered a case naming Bhatkal and his associates in the case on November 22, 2011, and later a non-bailable warrant was also issued against him,” said the officer, adding that the investigation is still pending.