Court grants Andhra police custody of two terror suspects; NIA, ATS join probe
A first-class magistrate-l court in Vizianagaram late on Thursday night granted the week-long custody for interrogation in connection with their alleged terror plot.
A local court in Andhra Pradesh’s Vizianagaram has granted the police the custody of two terror suspects – Siraj-ur-Rehman (29) and Syed Sameer (28) – who were arrested last week in connection with an alleged plan to carry out bomb blasts in different parts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, people familiar with the development said.
A first-class magistrate-l court in Vizianagaram late on Thursday night granted the week-long custody for interrogation in connection with their alleged terror plot.
The police had originally requested a 10-day custody period, but after two days of legal arguments, the court granted seven-day custody, with strict conditions. The court instructed that third-degree methods must not be used during questioning and mandated that the accused be produced in court after the interrogation, undergo medical examinations, and be returned to jail thereafter.
After obtaining the necessary custody orders on Friday morning, a team of police officials, led by in-charge superintendent of police Madhav Reddy from Vizianagaram, reached Visakhapatnam Central Prison, where the accused were sent on judicial remand since May 18.
“They have been brought to the Police Training College in Vizianagaram, where they are being questioned,” a senior police official privy to the development said.
The official said apart from the local police, a team of officials from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Anti-Terrorism Squad of the state police would also interrogate the two suspects.
The NIA is reportedly examining various leads linked to potential terror networks and foreign funding sources. Preliminary intelligence inputs suggest the accused may have established connections in Vizianagaram, Hyderabad, Karnataka, and Maharashtra, potentially communicating through encrypted platforms.
“The police are trying to elicit information from the accused about the exact locations where the blasts were allegedly being plotted, their financial sources and potential funders, other associates or sleeper cells in different regions and the nature of their communications and operational networks,” the official said.
The investigating agencies are hopeful of extracting comprehensive information from Siraj and Sameer that could expose a wider terror plot, he added.
