The National Investigating Agency (NIA) is likely to seek the custody of Shahnur Alom, one of the main accused of the Burdwan blast, who was arrested by the Assam Police earlier this month.
Sources in the NIA said that the central investigating agency will seek transit custody of Shahnur on January 2 next year when he will be produced in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate here in Guwahati. The NIA will take Shahnur to Kolkata for questioning, sources said.
“The NIA officials have quizzed Shahnur when he was in the custody of Assam Police. However, the central agency wants to take him to Kolkata for further questioning,” said a senior official of the Assam Police here on Monday.
Shahnur Alom was arrested by the Special Operation Unit (SOU) of the Assam police on the night of December 5 from Nalbari district in Assam. Shahnur, a key operative of the Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) had been absconding from his house in Chatala village in Barpeta district since October this year.
The Assam police had recently arrested two persons for their alleged involvement with the jehadi nexus — Nazimul Islam and Nur Jamal Haque from Barpeta district of Assam and based on the confession of Haque, police had recovered ten crude bombs on Sunday.
It may be mentioned here that the NIA, who is probing the Burdwan blast, had announced a bounty of Rs5 lakh on Shahnur. His wife Sujina Begum, who was also a member of the women wing of the Bangladesh-based terror network, was arrested earlier by the Assam police.
The central agency had also raided the house of Shahnur at Chatala village in Barpeta district at least three times and searched the bank accounts of Shahnur and his wife.
The Assam police had so far arrested 13 people for their links with the jehadi organisations including the JMB.