Police made Mozawalla sign blank sheets: Lawyer

The lawyer of visa agent Javed Abdul Gafoor Mozawalla, arrested on December 9 for allegedly spying for Pakistan, moved an application in court on Monday saying crime branch sleuths took his client’s signature on some blank sheets of paper. He said the police might write something on those sheets and say Mozawalla has confessed.

The lawyer of visa agent Javed Abdul Gafoor Mozawalla, arrested on December 9 for allegedly spying for Pakistan, moved an application in court on Monday saying crime branch sleuths took his client’s signature on some blank sheets of paper. He said the police might write something on those sheets and say Mozawalla has confessed.

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The crime branch, on Monday, told the Esplanade Metropolitan Magistrate court that it was studying the confidential documents seized from Mozawalla. The police also told the court that they wanted to find out how Mozawalla got those documents and who he was going to hand them over to.

The magistrate’s court has extended Mozawalla’s police custody till Wednesday.

Mozawalla’s lawyer, advocate Mubin Solkar, told the court that his client had been picked up by the police on December 7 but was shown as arrested only on December 9.

Solkar also argued against the additional custody given to the police stating that the remand application brought before the court on Monday had not mentioned any progress in probe.

“It is just a reiteration of old grounds,” Solkar argued. Solkar also told the court that for 12 days Mozawalla was in police custody and nothing had come of it. Solkar added, “They are talking about seizure of confidential documents, but there is no explanation of what is in these documents.”

Solkar told the court that the remand application produced on Monday was a verbatim copy of the First Information Report.

Mozawalla, a resident of Mazgaon, has been booked under the Official Secrets Act.

According to the Crime Branch, Mozawalla, who was working at the behest of two officials in the Pakistan High Commission, had gone inside restricted defence establishments and taken photographs on his mobile phone camera.