Suspect escapes from custody

A suspect in Sunday's serial blasts has escaped from custody of Bihar Police and National Investigation Agency (NIA) with conflicting versions emerging on the incident.
According to Bihar Police, Mehrar Alam, detained by NIA for questioning from Muzzafarpur area, is alleged to have escaped from the washroom of a guest house last night.
However, NIA officials said that Alam was only detained for questioning and he was cooperating with the investigating agencies to unravel the mystery behind the blasts that left six dead and 82 injured.
Top NIA officials contested the claims made by Bihar Police saying that the agency was yet to register a case in connection with the Sunday's blasts at a political rally of BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.

They said that Alam had been detained for questioning. However, since he did not turn up for questioning today as directed, a joint team of NIA, which is probing the Bodh Gaya blast and Bihar police, raided the lodge where he was putting up.
By then, Alam had already fled from the lodge but left his mobile phone behind, the NIA officials said, adding an diary entry had been made with the local police about his detention.

In a related development, another suspect has been detained in Delhi when he was on his way to the airport to see off his Pakistani wife.

The suspect Mohammed Aftab is a kin of yet another blast suspect Ujjair Ahmad who was arrested in Ranchi yesterday and taken on police remand.
The first arrested accused in the case, Imtiaz, has given clues about the conspiracy that was hatched by banned terror outfit Indian Mujahideen to create a communal wedge in Bihar, official sources said.