By IANS,
New Delhi : A Delhi court Thursday asked the Maharashtra Police why suspected Indian Mujahideen operative Qateel Mohammed Jaffer Siddiqui, found murdered in Pune jail earlier this month, was not presented before it after his remand ended May 29.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vinod Yadav sought an explanation from the anti-terrorism squad of police by July 3.
The accused was arrested by Delhi Police in 2011 before the court allowed the Maharashtra Police to take him to Pune May 1.
The court had given Maharashtra Police four weeks’ transit remand of Siddiqui to probe his alleged role in an attempt to plant a bomb at the Shrimant Dagdusheth Halwai Ganapati temple in Pune on the day of the German Bakery blast there Feb 13, 2010.
“The transit remand expired May 29 but the accused was not brought to Delhi and was sent to Pune jail,” Siddiqui’s counsel M.S. Khan told IANS.
He added that the victim was sent to judicial custody in Pune’s Yerwada Jail May 28 by a Maharashtra court.
CMM Yadav said: “At this stage, defence counsel (Khan) has filed an application seeking directions for ATS, Pune, to explain as to why accused Qateel Siddiqui was not produced within a period of four weeks from the date of handing over of his custody to ATS Pune through ASI (assistant sub-inspector) Sunil Dorge and why he was kept in Yerwada Iail.”
Siddiqui, a native of Bihar’s Barh Samaila village in Darbhanga district, was found strangled with a thin rope inside his cell in the high-security jail in Pune June 8.
He was an accused in the Delhi’s Jama Masjid shooting case of 2010 and was arrested by Delhi Police in November 2011.