Mufti, 9 SIMI activists remanded to police custody till Sep 30

Ahmedabad, Sep 16 (UNI) A local court today remanded Ahmedabad serial blasts mastermind Mufti Abdul Bashar Kasmi and nine other SIMI activists to police custody till September 30 for their alleged role in Gujarat terror plot which left 60 people dead.

Metropolitan Magistrate G M Patel ordered the remand when they were produced before him after their one-day judicial custody ended today.

Besides serial blasts in Ahmedabad, these ten accused had also planted nearly 30 bombs in diamond city of Surat between July 26 to 30. However, the bombs did not explode due to faulty wiring of mirco-chip used in the devices.

On two earlier occasions, on August 17 and September 1, the court had sent the accused to police custody.

The city crime branch, insisting on further police remand had argued before the court that the accused need to be thoroughly interrogated to ascertain the details of the Gujarat terror plot.

A terror plot of this magnitude, which involved huge finance, arms and explosives besides logistic support could not be carried out by such a small group and it smelled of others' involvement, it stressed.

Mufti had allegedly masterminded the 19 serial bomb blasts in Ahmedabad on July 26 that had claimed 60 lives and injured over 200 others. Of the 19 blasts, four occurred in Chief Minister Narendra Modi's Assembly Constituency, Maninagar.

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