14-day judicial custody for LeT suspect

The Special Cell had produced 50-year-old Madni before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaweri Baweja after the expiry of 21 days of police remand — the first instance of such a long period of police remand after the amendment in the Code of Criminal Procedure in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks.

The investigators claimed the accused,during his custodial interrogation,had disclosed his modus operandi — he selected men and sent them to Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) for training in terror activities in complicity with the Maoist organisation in Jharkhand. The men were brainwashed sufficiently on the call for ‘jehad’ before being sent to the training camps in PoK,the police have alleged. 

As per the remand papers,the Special Cell had taken Madni to Jharkhand and Rajasthan to procure more information on the men he had recruited since 2000 for carrying out terror attacks. “He has given to us names of the men he had recruited and we are in the process of verifying the details through various agencies. We have also received a few leads after taking him to Jharkhand and Rajasthan,but making such information public at this stage can hamper our investigation,” said a senior police officer.

Describing Madni as the right-hand man of LeT chief Hafeez Mohammad Saeed,the remand application stated,“Letters have been written to various departments regarding his visits to different countries,funding of terror outfits,e-mails. The reports of the same are awaited,which will subsequently need confrontation with the accused.”

The investigators further said that Madni would be taken for another round of police remand,if required,after the concerned reports come in.

Arrested on June 4 from the Qutub Minar area,Madni’s interrogation in connection with the Delhi serial blasts allegedly brought to the fore the collusion between LeT and Maoists organisations in Jharkhand for training youths in terrorist activities.