2 remanded to police custody by NIA court

Mumbai: A special NIA court on Friday remanded Faisal Mirza and Allahrakha Mansuri alias Kalu to police custody for seven days. Both the accused were arrested by the ATS in May this year for allegedly conspiring with Pakistan-based terror organisations to carry out terror attacks in Mumbai, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh.

The accused were in judicial custody but now the case has been transferred to the NIA, and the NIA had sought their custody to further investigate the case.

The prosecution case is that the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested Mirza and Mansuri for their suspected links with Dubai-based terrorists who were allegedly planning to carry out terror attacks in India with the help of Pakistan-based terror outfits.

The ATS investigated the matter and filed a charge-sheet against both the accused on August 16.

Meanwhile, in August itself, the case was transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) which registered a fresh FIR against the accused.

With the transfer of the case and registration of a fresh FIR, the NIA took custody of both the persons and produced them before a special NIA court on October 8. However, the court remanded them to judicial custody till October 22.

The NIA again produced them before special judge Dinesh Kothalikar and demanded that they should be remanded to police custody.