Didn't force Kazmi to sign blank papers: Delhi police

The Delhi police on Saturday denied that it had made journalist Syed Mohammed Ahmad Kazmi, arrested for his alleged role in the bombing of an Israeli diplomat's car, sign blank papers and documents without letting him read them.

"It is submitted that the accused (Kazmi) was neither forced to sign any document (without reading) nor any blank document," the Special Cell of Delhi police said in its reply to Kazmi's allegation, made in the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vinod Yadav.

In a hand-written application sent to the court from the Tihar Jail, Kazmi had said, "I was forced to sign papers which were not given (to me) for reading. I was also made to sign blank papers."

He had said when he refused to sign them, he was told by Special Cell policemen that his family would have to bear the consequences of his refusal.

The court, meanwhile, allowed Kazmi's application for being provided books and writing material as per the jail manual.

In the application, Kazmi had sought stationary material, saying he was a writer.

In response to his application seeking names of persons who visited him when he was in police custody, the Special Cell reiterated that "no person from outside or any other agency visited Kazmi during his police custody remand."

Meanwhile, the judicial custody of Kazmi, who is produced in the court through video conferencing due to security reasons, was extended by fourteen days.

Kazmi, who claims to have been writing for an Iranian publication, was picked up by the Special Cell of the Delhi police after the probe showed he had been in touch with a suspect who is believed to have stuck the magnetic bomb on Israeli diplomat Tal Yehoshua's car on February 13.

Yehoshua and an Indian driver of the embassy vehicle were among the four people injured in the blast.