New Delhi, July 30 (IANS) A Delhi court Monday refused to interfere with a magistrate’s order giving more time to the police to probe the alleged role of journalist Syed Mohammad Kazmi in the Feb 13 Israeli embassy car blast. The case would next be heard Oct 12.
Additional Sessions Judge S.S. Rathi refused to pass any order on Kazmi’s plea and said that the issue was pending before the Delhi High Court.
The court said: “Since the date of hearing in the high court is Oct 9, put up for hearing on Oct 12.”
“In my view when the high court is seized of the larger issues of legality of procedure adopted by the police during the investigation of this case and the law applicable for the entire investigation, it would not be appropriate for this court to hear and decide those very issues in a connected revision petition,” the court said.
Kazmi moved the court challenging the July 20 order of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Vinod Yadav who allowed a police plea seeking extension of the probe term from 90 to 180 days.
He was arrested March 6 for his alleged involvement in the bombing. Four people were injured when an Israeli embassy car was struck by a bomb near the prime minister’s house in central Delhi.
Taking note of the submission made by Additional Public Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan that larger issues were pending adjudication before the high court in a connected matter in the case, the ASJ refused to pass any order.
The court said that it would not be appropriate for it to interfere in the matter till the issues before the high court were decided.
The Delhi Police had filed an application in the high court seeking clarification on the issue when the CMM court refused to extend the remand of Kazmi. The CMM cited the questioning of its power by the sessions court to deal with cases under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
The high court July 2 suspended the hearing in the case and the June 8 order of the sessions court which questioned the magistrate’s power to extend the judicial or police custody of an accused under the anti-terror law.
The high court July 13 lifted the curbs and allowed hearing on the revision petition.
Mohan earlier told the court that the extension of the period of investigation would help police unearth the conspiracy.
While seeking the extension, police said that the conspiracy behind the Feb 13 Israeli embassy car bombing had an international link.
According to sources, police told the court that they were collecting information about Iranian suspect Houshang Afshar Irani.
Police claimed Irani was in contact with Kazmi and had links to a similar blast in an official Israeli vehicle in Tbilisi in Georgia that also took place Feb 13, sources said.
Tal Yehoshua Koren, 42, wife of Israeli defence attache Colonel Yossi Refaelov, suffered multiple injuries when a motorcycle rider attached a magnetic explosive device to her car in central Delhi and sped away.
