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Red Fort blast: NIA to grill Naseer Bilal for 7 more days; Soyab remanded to 5-day judicial custody

The court also remanded Soyab, a Faridabad resident accused of harbouring Red Fort bomber Umar-un-Nabi, to five days of judicial custody.

PTI

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Friday extended by seven days the NIA custody of Dr Bilal Naseer Malla, an accused in the Red Fort blast case.

The court also remanded Soyab, a Faridabad resident accused of harbouring Red Fort bomber Umar-un-Nabi, to five days of judicial custody.

The probe agency produced Soyab and Bilal at the Patiala House Court amid tight security on Friday upon the expiry of their previous four-day NIA custody granted on December 15.

Media persons were barred from covering the proceedings.

The accused were produced before Principal and Sessions Judge Anju Bajaj Chandna who allowed the probe agency to quiz Naseer in its custody for seven more days, while Soyab has been remanded to judicial custody till December 24.

An official spokesperson for the NIA had earlier said the agency arrested Soyab, a resident of Dhauj in Haryana's Faridabad, for allegedly providing logistical support to "terrorist" Umar-un-Nabi before the Delhi terror bomb blast.

NIA arrested Dr Naseer Bilal Malla in Delhi on December 9, calling him a key accused in the conspiracy.

According to the NIA investigations, Naseer had knowingly harboured Umar-un-Nabi by providing him logistical support. He is also accused of destruction of evidence related to the terrorist attack, the agency stated earlier on December 9.

The NIA has already arrested nine people, including three more doctors Dr Muzammil Ganaie, Dr Adeel Rather, Dr Shaheen Sayeed and religious preacher Maulvi Irfan.

Two others, Amir Rashid Ali, and Jasir Bilal Wani alias Danish, have also been arrested.

On December 18, NIA arrested the ninth accused in the case, Yasir Ahmad Dar, a Jammu and Kashmir resident and allegedly a close associate of Umar-un-Nabi. An active participant in the conspiracy, Dar had allegedly taken an oath to carry out self-sacrificial operations, the agency said.

Umar-un-Nabi was driving the explosive-laden i20 car that detonated outside the Red Fort on November 10.

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