Three more persons arrested in Andhra Pradesh on April 26 in connection with the killing of former Gujarat minister Haren Pandya were remanded today to 11 days in the custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Anas Machwala, Kalim Ahmed alias Mullah Karim, and Shahnawaz Gandhi, all residents of Ahmedabad, were arrested by the CBI. They were in transit remand for four days.
J S Sharma, senior public prosecutor, told the chief metropolitan magistrate that the CBI was yet to unearth the conspiracy behind the murder and find the others involved in it.
Defence counsel M I Laliwala, opposing the police remand, said that since CBI Director P C Sharma had already announced the recovery of the weapons used in the crime and the arrest of the main accused, he found no reason for the men to be sent to CBI custody.
But prosecutor Sharma pleaded that the empty cartridges were yet to be recovered and the accused persons' links with the absconders were yet to be ascertained.
The CBI has so far arrested eight persons (all hailing from Ahmedabad) in Hyderabad in connection with Pandya's murder while the crime branch of the Ahmedabad police has arrested ten suspected agents of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence.
The investigating agencies also recovered two weapons used in committing the crime, the clothes worn by sharpshooter Asghar Ali, and the two motorbikes used in the crime.
PTI
