The Delhi Police may not get the custody of Yasin Bhatkal, chief of banned outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM), as National Investigation Agency (NIA) is planning to get an order issued by the Andhra Pradesh Government under section 268 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
Once the order is issued, none of the State Police forces will get the custody of Bhatkal until the trial in the February 21, 2013 twin blasts of Hyderabad being investigated by the NIA is over. This will effectively shut the doors for the Delhi Police, the Mumbai Police and other State Police who want the custodial interrogation of Bhatkal.
Sources said that the move by the NIA has not only baffled the State Police forces who wanted to confront Bhatkal with substantial evidences of his involvement in various blasts in the National Capital, Bangalore, Mumbai and Jaipur.
Yasin Bhatkal was arrested by the NIA and the Bihar Police on August 29 near India-Nepal border in Bihar. He has been in the custody of the NIA since then. After the initial joint interrogation, Bhatkal was formally arrested by NIA’s Hyderabad Unit on September 21 for his alleged role in the twin blasts in Dilsukhnagar. NIA had also arrested his aide Asadullah Akhtar on September 17. While claiming the custody of Bhatkal, NIA had submitted before the court that Bhatkal had associates in Pakistan, Nepal and the West Asia who were involved in the terror strikes in Ahmedabad, Surat, Bangalore, Pune, Delhi and Hyderabad.
Bhatkal’s arrest was leaked to the media the moment he was picked up in Bihar. His arrest should have been kept under the wraps as that would have helped the police to arrest the other members of IM. Tahseen Monu of Darbhanga in Bikar and Waqas, a Pakistan national who were hiding in Manglore, managed to flee the country.
Tahseen and Waqas were the vital cogs of IM’s pan-India terror network and their arrest could have helped the Indian security agencies to checkmate the designs of the outfit. A high-profile officer of the NIA was later repatriated to his parent cadre after he was found leaking the sensitive details pertaining to Bhatkal to a section of the media, source said. NIA is wary of other agencies taking custody of Bhatkal for the reasons best known to them, the official added.