Hyderabad blast: CBI gets Lokesh Sharma's custody

A Hyderabad court has remanded Lokesh Sharma, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh activist and suspect in the Mecca masjid blast case, to the custody of the Central Bureau of Investigations for 10 days.

Replying to a petition filed by the CBI, the court ordered on Tuesday that the agency could take him into custody for custodial interrogation.

The court orders came three days after two witnesses had identified Sharma as the person who had purchased a cellphone from their shop that was later allegedly used along with a bomb planted at Hyderabad's Mecca Masjid.

The CBI had taken another accused in the case, Devender Gupta, in its custody on June 20 and the 10-day custody period ends on Wednesday.

Gupta will be produced before the court on Wednesday and is likely to be sent back to Chanchalguda Central Jail in Hyderabad to judicial custody.

Gupta and Sharma, who are also the prime accused in the Ajmer dargah blast case, were brought to Hyderabad by the CBI earlier this month after they admitted to their links in the Mecca Masjid blast case.

In its petition, the CBI has claimed that it has material evidence against showing Sharma's involvement in the Hyderabad blast case.

It has also alleged that Sharma and Gupta's acts of conspiracy and preparations to perpetrate terrorist act in the case spans across several states' jurisdiction.