Maharashtra ATS to take custody of Jundal

Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), on Monday, got orders for the custody of key 26/11 Mumbai terror attack’s Indian handler Syed Zaibuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal in the Aurangabad arms haul case.

Jundal’s custody with Mumbai police crime branch expired on August 13. The ATS will be formally taking over the custody on Tuesday and Jundal’s remand period will be decided after the agency shows the arrest documents.

Interestingly, the city police, in the wake of Saturday violence and in a bid to avoid possible media pandemonium, quietly whisked away Jundal to the metropolitan magistrate for recording his confession.

On Friday, Jundal had moved an application pleading that he would like to get his confession recorded and the matter was posted for Monday.

On Sunday, however, the police took him to Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate P S Rathod, who read out passages of Cr.PC Section 164 before instructing the court clerk to take down the confession pertaining to his role in November 26, 2008 Mumbai terror attack.

Incidentally, the present remand concerns the seizure of 43 kilo of RDX, 50 hand grenades, 16 AK-47 assault rifles and over a thousand odd live rounds in 2006 near Aurangabad. The ATS had claimed that the car allegedly driven by Jundal had managed to escape the dragnet spread out by the investigators by ditching the car later.

Jundal, after being taken into custody by Delhi Special Unit, was handed over to Mumbai police on July 21. The key handler will now be interrogated in several other cases as well, including Aurangabad arms haul case (2006) and German Bakery blast case (2010).