J J Shootout case accused remanded to judicial custody

Mumbai, Feb 21 (UNI) The designated TADA court today remanded Brijesh Singh alias Bhiru, a close aide to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, to judicial custody till March 8.

Singh is facing charges under the TADA Act for his alleged involvement in the sensational 1992 J J Shootout case.

TADA Judge D U Mulla today granted judicial custody to Singh as he had claimed that he was harrased and forced by the crime branch officials to give confessional statements against his wish.

The court also allowed the request made by him to be provided home food, home clothes and medicine.

The officers of the crime branch were also permitted to hold the identification parade of the accused in the jail.

In a related development, the Deputy Superintendent of Uttar Pradesh police Rajesh Bharti today appeared before the court with a request that the custody of the accused be handed over to the Varanasi police to enable them to interrogate him in a murder case, registered by Chubepur Police station in Varanasi.

The court after going through the UP police application adjourned the hearing till March 1 when Mumbai police will also file its reply on the gangster's plea of being tortured at the hands of crime branch officials.

Singh was arrested by Delhi police on January 23 this year in an extortion case of 2007. He was declared as an absconding accused in the J J Shootout case of 1992 and after completion of police remand at Delhi, the city police headed by Assistant Commissioner of Police Ashok Duraphe brought him here to try him in the J J Hospital shootout case.

According to the prosecution, on September 12, 1992 an AK 47 was used by the underworld don in the J J Hospital shootout case to kill Shailesh Haldankar of Gawli gang, who was admitted in a prison ward.

Haldankar was involed in the murder of Ibrahim Parkar, brother-in-law of Dawood Ibrahim, who was also the husband of the don's sister Haseena Parkar.

Police had reportedly seized around 500 empty cartridges from the spot and several other weapons.

In this case, police booked 31 persons, but it was gradually short-listed, as some of them were killed in subsequent police encounters and in gang wars.

The TADA court has already convicted three persons -- Subhash Singh Thakur, Surya Rao and Shyamkumar Garikar.

Subhash Singh Thakur was at first awarded with death penalty, which was later coverted into a life sentence till death by the Supreme Court. Surya Rao, was sentenced to seven-years of rigorous imprisonment, and Shyamkumar Garikar was sentenced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment that was confirmed by the Apex Court.

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