IC-814 accused taken to Mumbai

Yusuf Nepali, an accused in the IC-814 hijacking case, was taken to Mumbai today to be presented in a bank robbery case there.A Mumbai Polic...

Yusuf Nepali, an accused in the IC-814 hijacking case, was taken to Mumbai today to be presented in a bank robbery case there.

A Mumbai Police team arrived in Patiala, armed with warrant against Yusuf Nepali and Abdul Latif. The two are accused in a Borivali bank dacoity case for which a Mumbai court had issued a production warrant against them.

According to sources, when the Mumbai team reached the Patiala Central Jail to take custody of the accused, jail authorities referred the matter to the designated court trying the hijacking case. The court returned the application to the jail authorities, seeking their comments. The jail authorities, according to sources, said Latif was lodged in the jail under Section 268 of the CrPC on the orders of the Punjab government and as such, could not be shifted from the Jail.

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However, the authorities, sources said, did not make any such observation in the case of Yusuf Nepali and handed over his custody to Mumbai Police.

Earlier, a three-member team of the US FBI had quizzed three accused in the hijacking case. The team, during its two-day stay in Patiala, had questioned Dalip K. Bhujal, Nepali and Latif. The Indian Airlines plane was hijacked from Kathmandu and taken to Kandahar on December 24, 1999. The three accused were arrested a few days later and have been at the Patiala jail ever since.