A special court in Pune, Maharashtra on Tuesday directed the transfer of investigation into the alleged terror plot case in which five persons were arrested earlier from the state Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
The special court also directed the ATS to hand over the custody of all the five accused to the NIA and also granted their transit remand to the central investigation agency, said public prosecutor (ATS) Vijay Fargade.
The NIA has registered a fresh offence in Mumbai under Sections 379 (punishment of theft ), 468 (Forgery for purpose of cheating), and 511 (punishment for attempting to commit offences) of the Indian Penal Code, besides the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Arms Act.
Fargade said the court has passed the order to hand over the probe and the custody of the five suspects, including Mohammad Imran Mohammad Yunus Khan (23), Mohd Yunus Mohammad Yakub Saki (24), Zulfikar Ali Barodawala, and Qadir Dastgir, to the NIA.
The name of another arrested suspect is not given.
Four of the five men were arrested by the Maharashtra ATS, while Barodawala was in the custody of NIA.
Khan and Saki were nabbed by police in the Kothrud area of Pune city last month while stealing a motorcycle, but another suspect Shahnawaz Alam managed to escape.
The investigation revealed that Saki and Khan were wanted by the NIA in a March 2022 Rajasthan terror plot case, and they were the alleged members of the Al-Sufa outfit who escaped from Ratlam after NIA made some arrests in the case, investigators had said.
The NIA had told the Pune court that they have registered a fresh case in Mumbai and prayed to also hand over the entire case records, including the statements of witnesses, material articles, and case diaries, to the NIA chief investigative officer.
"The Central government is of the opinion that scheduled offences under the National Investigation Act have been committed, and having regard to the gravity of the offences and its inter-state linkages, it is required to be investigated by the NIA," the NIA told the special court and urged it to also transfer judicial records to the NIA Special Court in Mumbai.
Fargade said the court has given the transit remand of all the five accused to the NIA after the ATS surrendered their custody in court.
As per the ATS, Khan and Saki were hiding in Pune's Kondhwa area for the last 16 months and were sheltered by Qadir Dastgir.
The ATS had arrested one person- the fifth suspect- from Ratnagiri in Maharashtra for allegedly providing financial aid to Khan and Saki.
Barodawala, arrested by the NIA earlier, was the "mastermind" who used to handle Khan and Saki and used to provide aid.
The ATS claimed it had recovered several incriminating items, including chemical powder, a drone camera, equipment used for making bombs, two pistols, five rounds, one car, huge electronic data, images of the Chabad House, one of the 26/11 terror attacks sites, in south Mumbai.
Khan and Saki are accused of testing bombs in the jungles around Pune, the investigators had said.
According to sources close to the investigation, Barodawala, with the help of Khan and Saki, had imparted bomb-making training to some people close to him.
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