The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing the murder case of two BJP leaders in Bharuch, today filed a plea in the special court seeking permission for lie-detection test on the three accused.
Principal Judge of NIA court P B Desai extended the remand of three accused Inayat Haji Patel, Mohammad Yunus Shaikh and Abid Patel till January 1.
NIA had sought 10-day remand for the trio on the ground that the presence of these three accused is necessary to verify call details records and 'Whats App' message data collected by the agency till date.
The agency also sought the court's permission to go for lie-detection test to extract information from them.
The court, however, reserved its order about lie- detection test till January 1.
On December 22, the court remanded the four accused into the custody of NIA till today. These four included the trio as well as one Abdul Samad. However, Samad was not produced today as he has been admitted in hospital after he complained chest pain during remand.
The two BJP leaders - former party president of Bharuch district and senior RSS member Shirish Bangali and general secretary of Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha of Bharuch district Pragnesh Mistry - were shot dead in Bharuch on November 2.
Initially, Bharuch police, along with state Anti Terrorist Squad(ATS), conducted the probe.
The probe has shown that the contract for killing the BJP leaders was allegedly given by absconding Javed Chikna, apparently to avenge riots in Mumbai during 1993 and in Gujarat during 2002.
Based on the request of Gujarat government, the Union Home Ministry handed over the probe to NIA early this month.
The central agency had filed an FIR with the NIA court here on December 5 in connection with the case.
