... while it asks govt for an office

The country’s premier anti-terror probe agency. NIA, will have to keep Abid Hussain — an accused in the Delhi High Court blast — in any of the central police organisation (CPO) complexes in the national capital, especially for his night stay.

The country’s premier anti-terror probe agency. NIA, will have to keep Abid Hussain — an accused in the Delhi High Court blast — in any of the central police organisation (CPO) complexes in the national capital, especially for his night stay.

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This is because the National Investigation Agency (NIA) doesn’t have a lock-up of its own where it can hold and interrogate suspects.

Hussain was remanded to 15 days’ custody with the NIA to unravel the conspiracy behind the blast. The agency might get custody of another accused, Amir Abbas Dev, on Friday. But for security reasons the accused will be kept in a CPO complex.

The NIA has been operating in rented office spaces since its inception in early 2009. Its current headquarter is situated in a commercial office complex in Jasola district centre near the Delhi-Faridabad border. Earlier it was operating out of a government-owned hotel near the Delhi Airport.

Interestingly, an April 2010 office order issued by SC Sinha, director general, NIA, listed the agency’s annual plan and priorities for 2010 and said “a state -of-art interrogation centre would be created at the NIA headquarter”.

Initially, it was also claimed that a portion of the CBI’s old headquarter in the CGO complex would be given to NIA. But the plan didn’t materialise. When the agency took over investigation of the Delhi blast case, it requested the government for space in the new NDMC building near Connaught Place. “We have been told that the space is already earmarked for another department. Now we might be given an office in Mayur Bhawan,” said a source.