Mumbai court extends judicial custody of Malegaon blast suspects to December 3

Mumbai, Nov 25 : A special court in Mumbai on Monday extended the judicial custody of Malegaon blast suspects to December 3.

Police have arrested at least 10 people, including Lt. Colonel Srikant Prasad Purohit, a serving army officer, Dayanand Pandey, a Hindu monk and God-woman Pragya Singh over alleged involvement in the blast in Malegaon.

The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Maharashtra, which is investigating the case, last week invoked the tough anti-gangster Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against the suspects.

Police argued for fresh custody of the accused but the court turned down their plea.

Shrikant Shivade, counsel of the accused said they were being "tortured" and forced into confession.

"Police appealed for custody of the accused under MCOCA, which was rejected. The judge said that the reasons stated by the police after invoking MCOCA were not appropriate to grant them custody of the accused. All the accused lamented before the court their ordeal of torture. Court has recorded their statements. We told them that police wanted their custody to torture them for confession and they have invoked MCOCA simply to seek custody of the accused, which is wrong. Thus police custody request has been rejected," Shivade added.

Five people were killed in the blasts that hit the Muslim-dominated town on September 29.

ANI