Additional Sessions Judge Kaveri Baweja declined the plea of Special Cell of Delhi Police to extend by five days the police custody of Irfan Mustafa Langda and instead remanded him in judicial custody till November 13.
Maharashtra native Irfan, 30, was arrested by Special Cell from Jaipur, Rajasthan on October 10 for allegedly planning to carry out blasts at various places across country during the festive season and for his role in the Pune blasts.
He had been remanded in police custody till today.
The police today sought extension of his police remand saying he has to be confronted with Maqbool, another IM operator arrested on October 23 from Hyderabad, to unearth the conspiracy hatched by IM and LeT to execute blasts at various places across India, particulary Delhi.
It also said that during his police custody, explosives and incriminating material used in Pune blast was recovered at Irfan's instance and he is yet to be confronted with a man named Sameer, who had introduced him to Maqbool for the purpose of terrorist strikes during the festive season.
The probe agency's plea was rebutted by Irfan's counsel Mehmood Pracha, who argued that "the police has failed to follow the provisions of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and National Investigating Agency Act in letter and spirit."
He argued that the police have not bothered to refer the matter to the Centre for it to decide if any scheduled offence is made out or not.
Besides Irfan and Maqbool, police had arrested Feroze Hamza, Asad Khan and Imran Khan in the matter. Asad and Imran have already been sent in judicial custody while Feroze and Maqbool are in police custody.
