Red Fort blast: Delhi court extends NIA custody of 5 accused till Jan 16

New Delhi, Jan 14: A Delhi court on Wednesday extended till January 16 the NIA custody of five accused in the Red Fort blast case including three doctors and a maulvi.

Principal District and Sessions Judge Anju Bajaj Chandna allowed the agency's plea to extend the custodial interrogation of Dr Adeel Rather, Dr Shaheen Saeed, Dr Muzammil Ganaie, Maulvi Irfan Ahmad Wagay and Jasir Bilal Wani.

The agency, in its remand paper, said that the accused persons are required to be confronted with other co-accused, suspects and witnesses on certain contradictory points.

It underlined that the accused persons possessed exclusive knowledge of certain facts and circumstances at various locations, including Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR).

The remand paper said that such facts were revealed by some witnesses and by the technical analysis of the extracted data retrieved from the seized digital devices.

It said "certain code words" and "other incriminating material" which surfaced after the earlier custody of the accused persons required to be explained.

It further said that the accused's extension of custody was also needed to unearth the larger conspiracy and identify additional people connected to it.

NIA's plea also underlined the need to trace the flow of communications and movements linked to the present case, besides carrying out "crime simulation".

Suicide bomber Umar-un-Nabi, was driving the explosive-laden car that detonated outside the Red Fort on November 10, last year, leaving 15 people dead.

The National Investigating Agency has arrested nine accused persons in the case.