New Delhi: A Delhi court on Wednesday extended the judicial custody of seven accused in the Red Fort blast case by 15 days.
The court remanded Dr Adeel Rather, Dr Muzammil Ganaie, Dr Shaheen Saeed, Maulvi Irfan Ahmed Wagay, Jasir Bilal Wani, Amir Rashid Ali and Soyab in judicial custody for 15 more days.
Earlier, the three doctors and Wagay were sent to 12 days of judicial custody on December 12. Ali and Wani were remanded in 14 days of judicial custody on December 10. Soyab was sent to five days of judicial custody on December 19.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) produced the seven accused at the Patiala House Court amid tight security on Wednesday, upon the expiry of their previous judicial custody period.
Mediapersons were barred from covering the proceedings.
The seven accused were produced before Additional Sessions Judge Prashant Sharma, who remanded all of them in judicial custody till January 8.
As reported earlier, a sophisticated terror module spearheaded by a group of doctors “was actively scouting for a suicide bomber since last year, with Umar-un-Nabi being the alleged key planner”.
Umar-un-Nabi was driving the explosive-laden Hyundai i20 car that detonated outside the Red Fort on November 10.
Ali was arrested on November 16 for allegedly facilitating the purchase of a car that was eventually used as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (IED) to trigger the blast near the Mughal-era monument.
Wani was arrested on November 17 for allegedly providing “technical support to carry out the terror attack by modifying drones and attempting to make rockets ahead of the blast”. Wani allegedly admitted during his questioning that he had come across the “doctor module” in October last year at a mosque in Kashmir’s Kulgam, officials said.
Soyab was arrested on November 26 for allegedly providing logistical support to Umar-un-Nabi prior to the blast.
The NIA also arrested Dr Naseer Bilal Malla from Delhi on December 09, calling him a “key accused in the conspiracy”. He was accused of harbouring Umar-un-Nabi, “providing him with logistical support and destroying evidence related to the terror attack”.
On December 18, the NIA arrested the ninth accused in the case, Yasir Ahmad Dar, a Jammu and Kashmir resident and allegedly a close associate of Umar-un-Nabi. An “active participant in the conspiracy”, Dar had allegedly taken an oath to carry out self-sacrificial operations, the agency said.
