5 held for IS links sent to 12-day police custody

A city court on Friday remanded five persons, arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) here on charges of their alleged involvement in a terror module suspected to be linked to Islamic State (IS) and conspiring to carry out bomb attacks, in police custody for 12 days.

Metropolitan Sessions Judge K Rajkumar allowed the NIA’s petition, seeking their custody and directed that the accused be produced before the court on July 12. Mohammed Ibrahim Yazdani alias Ibbu, Habeeb Mohammed alias Sir, Mohammed Ilyas Yazdani, Abdullah Bin Ahmed Al Amoodi and Muzaffar Hussain Rizwan were arrested by the NIA, following a series of searches conducted at 10 locations in Old City area on June 29, with assistance from the Hyderabad Police. The agency had detained six others, including a techie, during the operation.

On Thursday, the court had remanded them in judicial custody for 14 days, though the NIA had sought their police custody for further examination. In its application, the investigating agency stated that the accused needed to be taken to Maharashtra and Rajasthan and it also wanted to question them on the possibility of recovering more explosives.

During the arguments for police custody, the NIA said they also wanted to probe the source of funding for the activities of the accused and about their contacts, if any. However, defence sought dismissal of the NIA petition, saying it is not maintainable.