In AIIMS bed, LeT terrorist Tunda gets judicial custody

Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Abdul Karim Tunda, who has been admitted to the AIIMS for special cardiac care, was today sent to 14 days' judicial custody by a Delhi court.

Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Abdul Karim Tunda, who has been admitted to the AIIMS for special cardiac care, was today sent to 14 days' judicial custody by a Delhi court.

A magistrate visited Tunda in the hospital and remanded him to custody till September 7.

Tunda was scheduled to be produced before the court on Saturday upon the expiry of his four-day police custody. He was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on Friday.

Tunda, 70, who was arrested from the Indo-Nepal border last Friday, was admitted to Safdarjung hospital on August 22 after he complained of chest pain.

However, keeping in view the specialised care and security concerns, he was shifted to AIIMS the next day and admitted to the Intensive Cardiac Care Unit.

A Delhi court on August 20 had remanded Tunda to four day police custody for questioning him in connection with 37 bomb blast cases across the country.

The police had told the court that Tunda was a declared proclaimed offender in a case of recovery of explosive substances lodged in 1994 at south Delhi’s Malviya Nagar police station under the provisions of stringent anti-terror law TADA.

During the proceedings, which had been held in-camera, after a lawyer interrupted it, Tunda had told the court that he was “innocent” as he had not motivated anyone to kill women and children by exploding bombs.

Tunda is one of 20 terrorists India had asked the Pakistan government to hand over after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack and is suspected to be involved in 40 bombings in the country. He is the first in the list to be arrested.According to Delhi Police, he is wanted for his role in 1993 Mumbai serial train blasts, Delhi bomb blasts of 1997-98 and serial bombings in the state of UP and also at Panipat, Sonepat, Ludhiana and Hyderabad.

Tunda gets a pacemaker
Tunda underwent a surgery to implant a pacemaker at AIIMS on Saturday. According to hospital sources, his angiography and ECG reports were not normal.

“Tunda was taken to the cath lab at 2.45pm on Saturday from the cardiac intensive care unit ICU, where the pacemaker was implanted in his heart. The surgery went on for 30 minutes. He is showing signs of improvement and is stable now,” said a senior doctor at the hospital.

A pacemaker is a small device implanted in the patient to control heartbeat.

Complete heart block occurs when the electrical signal can’t pass normally from the atria, the heart’s upper chambers, to the ventricles or lower chambers.

A heavy contingent of armed police guards were deployedoutside the ward where Tunda is being treated.