Arms haul case suspects retract confessional statement

Mumbai, Nov 2 (UNI) Two of the suspected Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operatives, arrested by Anti Terrorist Squad sleuths from Aurangabad in May this year, have retracted their earlier confessional statement to the ATS.

Mohd Musafar Tanvir and Abdul Azim Abdul Shaikh, who were produced before MCOCA court judge Mrudula Bhatkar for an extension of their judicial remand, moved an application before the court stating that their confession was extracted under duress.

Meanwhile, the MCOCA court today extended till November 15, the judicial custody of all the sixteen suspected LeT operatives who have been arrested in connection with the seizure of arms and ammunition from Aurangabad in May this year.

The ATS, in a joint operation with the Aurangabad police on May 9 this year, had arrested three terrorists including an activist of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) from near the Guruneshwar temple at Verul village and seized arms and ammunition from them. Upon their interrogation, the rest were arrested in three different operations near Aurangabad. The ATS sleuths had seized a total of 16 AK-47 rifles, 43 kg of RDX, 3200 ammunition rounds and 50 hand grenades during the operations.

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