13/7 blasts: Police custody of two accused extended

A local court today extended till February 18 the police custody of two alleged operatives of Indian Mujahideen, arrested for one of the three bomb blasts that rocked the metropolis on July 13 last year.

Two other suspects were taken into custody for another blast the same day.

In a related development, arrested accused Haroon Naik pleaded innocence to charges in Zaveri Bazaar blast case when he was produced before Metropolitan Magistrate's Court in Mazgaon at the end of his police custody.

Near-simultaneous bomb blasts at Zaveri Bazaar, Opera House and Dadar had killed 27 persons.

Naik is suspected to have used hawala channels to fund the blasts with the help of another arrested accused and hawala operator Kanwar Nain Wazeer Chand Patrija (42). Patrija handed over Rs 10 lakh to fugitive IM's top operative Yasin Bhatkal to execute the terror attack, police had said.

Naik, who was already behind bars in a fake currency case, was taken into custody in the blast case on February 1. Patrija, who hails from Ghaziabad, was arrested from Delhi on January 30.

As the custody of the two apprehended in the Zaveri Bazaar case got over today, they were produced before the court which extended their remand till February 18.

During the court proceedings, Naik sought to know in which terror case he had been nabbed, to which the Magistrate replied, the Zaveri Bazaar case.

"I am not linked to this case," Naik told the court, pleading his innocence.