Court extends police custody of suspected IM operative

Mumbai, Sep 20: A local court today (Sept 20) extended till September 23 police custody of Asrar Ahmed Abdul Hamid Tailor, suspected member of Indian Mujahideen (IM), arrested in a fake currency case, after ATS said it wanted to probe his alleged terror links.

The investigating agency said it needed to interrogate Tailor to find out whether money recovered from him was meant for terror attacks. ATS had seized 30 fake currency notes of Rs 1000 denomination from him when he was arrested.

The ATS today produced Tailor, a computer trainer, before the Mazgaon Magistrate M P Bage, who remanded him in police custody till September 23.

Earlier, Tailor's companion Haroon Rashid Abdul Hamid Naik, also a suspected member of IM, was remanded in judicial custody by the court in the same fake currency case.

The duo have also been questioned for their suspected involvement in the serial blasts that had ripped through Dadar, Zaveri Bazaar and Opera House localities of the city on July 13.

At least 26 people were killed and several injured in the triple blasts. According to ATS, Tailor had confessed to his involvement in distribution of the fake currency notes along with Haroon to whom he had imparted computer training.

Haroon had also allegedly sent Tailor to Pakistan for terror training in 2000.

The investigating agency told the court that besides Haroon there were many others who had been sent to Pakistan for terror training and it wanted to find out from Tailor about them.

Seeking Tailor's custody, ATS said it had recovered objectionable reading material from him which contained provocative literature meant to incite communal passions and indoctrinate youths.

PTI