Remand of Akshardham attack accused extended till Nov 17

Ahmedabad, Nov 3 (UNI) A designated POTA court today remanded Majid Patel, charged with funding the 2002 Akshardham Terror attack, to another 14-day police custody.

POTA Court Judge N A Acharya, after hearing arguments of both sides, sent Majid to police custody till November 17. Earlier, Majid was awarded 14-day police remand on October 21.

City Crime Branch had sought 14-day police remand for Majid, claiming that it would like to interrogate the accused for his alleged involvement in funding the Akshardham Terror Attack in 2002 through a hawala racket.

Majid was brought by City Crime Branch team from Bharuch district on October 19.

The police also argued that the accused should be given 14-day police remand as there are still other 25 accused absconding. Police believe that majority of these absconders are presently living in various Gulf countries.

In September-2002, the Akshardham Swaminarayan Temple was stormed by two heavily armed militants of Lashkar-e-Toiba to avenge the post-Godhra communal riots in Gujarat.

With indiscriminate firing from their automatic weapons, the two militants had killed 34 people and injured 81 others before being shot down by Commandos of National Security Guards, who were flew in from New Delhi. In the operation, two NSG commandos were also killed.

Earlier in July-2006, in another judgement, the POTA court had granted death penalty to three people and awarded lifer and 5-year's imprisonment to three others.

UNI MP OBB SB BST2107