Suspected IM operative Shahzad's custody extended

A Delhi court on Friday, extended by six days the police remand of suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorist Shahzad to allow further probe into his alleged role in the September 2008 serial blasts in the national capital.

Metropolitan Magistrate Hemraj sent Shahzad for custodial interrogation till February 18. He was produced before the court on the expiry of his six day-long police remand. The IM suspect, also an accused in the Batla House encounter was sent to judicial custody till February 20

in that case.

The crime branch of police had submitted that it did not require him for further interrogation in the encounter case. Earlier, the court had remanded Shahzad, who was arrested from Azamgarh by the Uttar Pradesh's Anti-Terror Squad, to three days' police custody.

The police had claimed that Shahzad and Junaid alias Ariz, who was allegedly involved in the serial blasts, had escaped from Batla House in south Delhi here where suspected IM terrorists were holed up.