NIA special court extends police custody of Red Fort blast accused Amir Rashid Ali for 7 more days

New Delhi, Dec 02: A Delhi court on Tuesday extended the police custody of Amir Rashid Ali, a Jammu and Kashmir resident accused of facilitating the Red Fort blast, for seven more days.

On November 26, he was sent to a seven-day NIA custody ahead of the expiry of his 10-day remand on November 27.

Ali, arrested on November 16 in connection with the Red Fort blast, was produced before the Principal District and Sessions Judge Anju Bajaj Chandna on Tuesday.

The NIA has previously arrested seven people associated with this case. The matter is linked to a "white collar" terror module that was unearthed by the Jammu and Kashmir police.

On November 10, 15 people were killed in an explosion near Red Fort in Delhi. More than two dozen people were injured in the blast caused by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) inside a Hyundai i20 car driven by an alleged suicide bomber, Umar Un Nabi. The car was found to be registered under the name of Amir Rashid Ali.

"Amir had come to Delhi to facilitate the purchase of the car which was eventually used as a vehicle-borne Improvised Explosive Device to trigger the blast", the NIA had previously disclosed in a statement.

The agency had confirmed the identity of the deceased driver to be Umar Un Nabi, a resident of Pulwama district and Assistant Professor in the General Medicine department of Al-Falah University, Faridabad.

The agency has also seized another vehicle belonging to Nabi that is currently being examined for evidence in the case. The NIA has so far examined 73 witnesses, including those injured in the blast.