New Delhi: A Delhi court on Thursday remanded four accused in the Red Fort blast case to 10 days of NIA custody.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) sought 15 days to interrogate the four accused in its custody.
Principal District and Sessions Judge Anju Bajaj Chandna sent the four accused to 10 days of NIA custody.
The four accused are Dr Muzammil Shakeel Ganai of Pulwama, Dr Adeel Ahmed Rather of Anantnag and Mufti Irfan Ahmad Wagay of Shopian in Jammu and Kashmir and Dr Shaheen Saeed of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh.
There was heavy security in the court premises with an RAF contingent deployed alongside Delhi Police personnel.
Media persons were barred from entry during the court proceedings.
Meanwhile, in a related development, earlier in the day, the NIA took custody of the four accused — Ganaie, Rather, Wagay and Saeed — who had already been arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir Police.
The anti-terror probe agency took them into custody in Srinagar following production orders from the District Sessions Judge at the Patiala House court here, according to a statement from an NIA spokesperson.
“They had all played a key role in the terror attack that killed several innocent persons and left many others injured, as per NIA investigations,” the spokesperson said.
With their custody shifting to the NIA, which formally took over the case on November 11, the number of people booked in connection with a ‘white collar terror plot” has gone up to six.
The NIA has already arrested two people — Amir Rashid Ali and Jasir Bilal Wani alias Danish.
Dr Umar Nabi, who was driving the explosives-laden i20 that detonated outside the Red Fort, had allegedly bought the car in Ali’s name. Wani was arrested after it emerged that Umar had been trying to “brainwash” him to becoming a suicide bomber, officials said. He was not persuaded but is alleged to have agreed to participate as an overground worker for the banned terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed.
Officials said Adeel’s interrogation pointed to Umar being a “hardcore radical” who insisted that a suicide bomber was essential for their operations. It was after that that Srinagar police sent a team to Qazigund in south Kashmir and detained Wani.
Wani admitted during his questioning that he had met the “doctor module” in October last year at a mosque in Kulgam, Kashmir, the officials said.
In April this year, Wani backed out of the plan to become a suicide bomber, citing his poor economic condition and the belief that suicide was forbidden in Islam, they said.
Those arrested are alleged to be at the centre of the terror module busted by Jammu and Kashmir Police along with their counterparts in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. Investigations led to the Al Falah university in Faridabad where 2,900 kg of explosives was recovered.
It all started on the intervening night of October 18-19, when posters of the banned JeM surfaced on walls just outside Srinagar city. The posters warned of attacks on police and security forces in the Valley.
Three people — Arif Nisar Dar alias Sahil, Yasir-ul-Ashraf and Maqsood Ahmad Dar alias Shahid — were arrested after CCTV footage showed them pasting the posters.
During interrogation, they named former paramedic turned preacher Maulvi Irfan as the one who had supplied the posters. He was arrested.
This was the thread that led to the unravelling of the plot. It was his interrogation that finally led investigators to Al Falah university and the group of Kashmiri doctors.
The first person to be arrested was Ganaie from Faridabad. Then Saeed too from the town. Later, Adeel Rather was picked up from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh.
