A Delhi court on Friday extended the National Investigation Agency (NIA) custody of Dr Bilal Naseer Malla, an accused in the blast near the iconic Red Fort, for seven days.
The court also remanded Soyab, a Faridabad resident accused of harboring bomber Umar-un-Nabi, to five-day judicial custody.
Soyab and Bilal were produced at the Patiala House Court amid tight security after the expiry of their four-day NIA custody. The accused were produced before Principal and Sessions Judge Anju Bajaj Chandna, who allowed the agency to grill 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 Faridabad, for allegedly providing logistical support to ‘terrorist’ Umar-un-Nabi before the Delhi terror bomb blast.
The NIA arrested Dr Naseer Bilal Malla in Delhi on December 9, calling him a key accused in the conspiracy.
According to 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 and Dr Shaheen Sayeed, and religious preacher Maulvi Irfan. Two others, Amir Rashid Ali and Jasir Bilal Wani, alias Danish, have also been arrested.
On Thursday, the agency had 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, killing 13 people.