Mumbai Police found itself in an embarrassing situation when it again sought the remand of Indian Mujahideen (IM) terrorists, who are suspects in serial blasts in the country, in connection with the probe on 26/11 terror strikes only to withdraw the plea after admitting it was an error.
The Mumbai police retracted since it had previously made a remand application on December 15 last to investigate if the IM terrorists had any links with those behind the Mumbai terror attacks.
On January two, this year, Mumbai Police moved a remand application but retracted the very next day by filing a corrigendum in the court withdrawing the plea.
Joint Commissioner of Mumbai Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria said it was an 'error on the part of the investigating officer of the IM case'.
Maria had said that the plea seeking the custody of the terrorists in the 26/11 probe was erroneously mentioned in the remand application.
The Mumbai crime branch had filed the January 2 remand application in the special MCOCA court that it wanted to verify if the 20 alleged members of terror group Indian Mujahideen (IM) had any links with the Lashkar-e-Tayiba group, allegedly responsible for the November 26 terror attack.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Ashok Duraphe, who had drafted the remand application, then filed a corrigendum before the MCOCA court next day requesting the court to delete that point from the application.
Maria said his department had filed a corrigendum, which stood for both the remand applications.
While six of the IM operatives are in Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail, the rest are in the custody of the Gujarat police in connection with the Ahmedabad and Surat blasts.
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