Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (SP)
Mangalore, Mar 3: A court here extended the judicial remand of Shabeer Bhatkal alias Shabeer Maulvi, terror suspect brought to the city by the district policemen from Yerawada Jail in Pune for investigating his links with the terrorist activities in the state, as there was no legal counsel to represent him.
Judicial magistrate first class court, before whom Shabeer, who was granted a day's judicial custody the previous day, was produced on Monday March 2, did not grant police custody as sought by the policemen, as the accused was not represented by a legal counsel. As such, the court extended his judicial custody by a day, to be able to make suitable arrangement for a lawyer to represent him in the court, when the petition of the police comes up for hearing.
On Tuesday, the court may appoint a counsel for Shabeer from among a group of government lawyers. The policemen hope to get the court’s nod for their demand for a 15-day police custody for Shabeer, who they believe, will be an important source of information in their investigation into anti-terrorist activities in the coast.
It may be recalled, that the local police had in October 2008, arrested several persons allegedly having terrorist links from places near the city. However, important leaders of the Indian Mujahideen like Riyaz Bhatkal, Iqbal Bhatkal and Shabeer Moulvi had succeeded in evading arrest and going underground. The Maharashtra police had later arrested Shabeer. The policemen want to extract vital information from him to enable them to put together some missing links in their investigations.