New Delhi, Oct 20 (IANS) A Delhi court Saturday handed over the custody of 26/11 suspect Abu Jundal to the Gujarat Police over a 2006 train blast in Ahmedabad. Another court earlier sent him to judicial custody after the NIA presented him after questioning.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Vidya Parkash handed over the custody of Jundal to Gujarat Police allowing them to interrogate him in connection with the Karnavati Express blast which left 25 injured in Ahmedabad.
The court directed Gujarat Police to present the accused before a chief judicial magistrate/chief metropolitan magistrate/duty magistrate in Ahmedabad on or before Sunday.
“It is also directed to ensure that the accused is produced before this court on or before Oct 31 as per rules,” the court said.
The court direction came after a request by the anti-terrorism squad of police to question Jundal.
After the Karnavati Express left Mumbai Central station, a bomb in it exploded in Ahmedabad on the night of Feb 19, 2006.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) earlier presented Jundal in another special court which ordered that he be sent to judicial custody till Nov 3.
The Gujarat Police plea seeking Jundal’s custody was filed before CMM Parkash in another court within minutes of the NIA special court sending him to judicial custody.
The CMM accepted the police plea and allowed them to take Jundal to Ahmedabad for questioning.
The NIA special court Oct 8 gave the custody of Jundal to the probe agency to quiz him till Oct 20 to unearth terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba’s (LeT) conspiracy for strikes across India.
The NIA had sought Jundal’s custody in connection with a first information report (FIR) registered earlier this year following unearthing of a LeT conspiracy on terror strikes.
Jundal was arrested June 21 by Delhi Police after one of the accused in a firing incident at Jama Masjid here ahead of the 2010 Commonwealth Games revealed his name. The accused, Mohd. Adil, told police that Jundal motivated him for jihad.
Police added that Jundal with LeT member Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and others was present in the “control room” in Pakistan for monitoring the Mumbai attack Nov 26, 2008 that left 166 people dead.
He has so far been questioned over the Mumbai attack, the German Bakery blast in Pune Feb 13, 2010 that killed 17 people. He was also questioned in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad arms haul in which 43 kg of RDX, 50 hand grenades, 16 AK-47 rifles and over 3,000 bullets were seized from two cars.
