Jundal remanded in Crime Branch custody

After the expiry of his remand yesterday, the Crime Branch today produced Jundal before the court of metropolitan magistrate B J Ganatra and sought his remand for 14 days in an alleged conspiracy that was aimed at taking revenge of the 2002 riots by spreading terror in the state.

While seeking Jundal's remand, the public prosecutor argued that since he was connected with international terrorist outfits, his custodial interrogation was required to find out who were the other conspirators.

Opposing the contention, Jundal's counsel Ilyas Pathan said the grounds on which crime branch was seeking his custodial interrogation were similar to those put forward by ATS and that the agency had already interrogated Jundal.

The LeT operative was on October 21 given in the ATS custody after he was brought from Tihar Jail on transit remand by DIG Manoj Shashidhar.

Four persons, including including madrassa teacher Kari Mufidul Islam Shaikh from Tadkeshwar in Bharuch district, were arrested in 2004 in connection with the case in which Crime Branch was given Jundal's custody today.

They all were charged for spreading terror after police allegedly recovered six CDs from Shaikh's house which contained descriptions of battles 'Jan-e-Ahad and Jang-e-Badar', besides the footage of 2002 post-Godhra riots.

However, a sessions court here had acquitted them in 2006 with observation that there was no evidence against them to establish their involvement in terrorist activities.