Unable to get Abu Jundal's custody, NIA tells court

The National Investigation Agency on Friday told a Delhi court that it has been unable to get the custody of 26/11 key handler Abu Jundal, whom it wanted to interrogate for unearthing the conspiracy hatched by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba for terror strikes across India.

The agency informed Special NIA Judge H S Sharma that it could not manage to secure the accused' custody which was given to the Delhi police's special cell for further 15 days on Thutsday by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vinod Yadav

The NIA told the judge that it will seek the custody of Jundal alias Syed Zabiuddin from the CMM on July 20 when the police remand of the terrorist comes to an end with the Delhi police.

The NIA court had issued production warrant against Jundal in a case lodged on June 8 by the agency against him and other LeT members on the orders of the Ministry of Home Affairs about the alleged conspiracy hatched by them for waging war against India.

The NIA's plea for Jundal's custody is still pending in the court of the CMM.

The agency had said the case was registered on credible information that a native of Juna Bazar at Beed in Maharashtra was making efforts to collect explosives including ammonium nitrate as per a plot by LeT members like Jundal, Fayaz Kagzi and others for organising terror strikes across the country and not limited to Delhi and Mumbai alone. This case was registered after the Centre had suo motu authorised the NIA to investigate the matter.

Earlier, the NIA had told the CMM that the investigation being conducted in other matters by various probe agencies was in relation to the offences which stood committed in the past, whereas the matter investigated by it is a prospective one in which it is engaged in averting terror strike by Jundal and his associates in various parts of India.

Apart from NIA, other agencies -- Mumbai detection crime branch, CID and the Anti-Terrorism Squad as also Pune ATS -- were also seeking Jundal's custody to interrogate him in several other terror attack cases including the German Bakery blast case and the Nasik police academy attack case in which the co-accused have named him as one of the conspirators.

The agencies also wanted to confront him with the lone surviving Mumbai terror accused Ajmal Kasab.

Jundal had allegedly trained the 10 Pakistani terrorists who had attacked Mumbai on November 26, 2008, besides teaching them basic Hindi and apprising them of Mumbai's topography. He was arrested from the Indira Gandhi International Airport on June 21 and was sent to Delhi police's custody.

He has been arrested in connection with an FIR registered on November 22, 2011 relating to the arrest of Indian Mujahideen operatives and is also being interrogated for his involvement in the Jama Masjid, German Bakery and Chinnaswamy stadium blasts. He has been booked under various provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the Explosive Substances Act, the Passport Act and various sections of the IPC.