PFI raids: Mumbai Court extends custody of five accused till Oct 8
India Today
A Mumbai Court extended the custody of Popular Front of India (PFI) members arrested by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) during raids.
A court in Mumbai has extended the custody of accused arrested by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Maharashtra around the city said to be associated with the Popular Front of India (PFI) till Oct 8.
The accused was arrested on September 22. The ATS said that it wanted to investigate further into the social media platforms of the accused and had to confront them with whatever they have found out so far in their probe.
On Monday when the accused were produced before the special NIA court, ATS sought the custody of accused for eight more days. Special judge AM Patil perused the case diary brought by the investigators and noted, “It seems that the investigating officer has to extract all the information from mobile phones seized from the accused. The investigating officer has technical experts in his team and with their help, he can extract all the incriminating material and confront the accused. This work may be completed in four to five days and eight days are not required for it.”
According to ATS, Accused Mazhar khan, Shaikh Sadique, Mohammad Iqbal khan, Momin Mistri and Asif khan were alleged to have advised people on “how to escape the clutches of law.” According to ATS one accused is an advocate while other four are said to be law students who were propagating religious preaches as well as law.
Advocate Mohammad Ibrahim, appearing for accused Sadiq, who is also an advocate, opposed any custody being granted to ATS. He submitted that conducting a legal workshop was not a crime and despite that, the prosecution was projecting the said work as illegal. Also, the accused had a right to travel all over the country.
On the ATS claim that Mazhar Khan, another accused in the case, had transferred money to Shaikh's account, his lawyer said he had given a personal loan to Khan, which the latter had repaid. Lawyers of the other accused submitted that the grounds mentioned in the fresh remand were only a repetition of the earlier ground.
Lawyer Imran Shaikh, appearing for Khan and Mohammed Iqbal, also said that extension of custody was “bad in law”, as there is no “genuine reason” in the entire remand application. He prayed that the accused be sent to judicial custody.
