A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Friday extended the custody till Aug 17 of two persons arrested earlier this month in connection with the killing of Amravati chemist Umesh Kolhe. Shaikh Chhotu, the latest arrest in the case, was also produced before the court on Friday and the NIA was granted his custody.
The NIA had sought an extension of the custody of Abdul Arbaz and Maulavi Mushfique Ahmed on the grounds that it needs to peruse their call detail records as well as check their finances and probe into conspiracy aspects. It also sought extended custody on the ground of the new arrest in the case.
Advocate Kashiff Ali Khan Deshmukh appearing for the accused argued that sufficient custody had been granted and need not be extended. Advocate Ishrat Khan appearing on the instructions of Advocate Tehwar Pathan argued that the NIA had already seized pass books of the accused, hence is already aware of their financial transactions and for the CDR, mobiles have been seized already, hence custodial interrogation is not necessary.
The three accused also made a plea informing the court that they have not made any confession while in custody, nor do they intend to make any.
The pharmacist was stabbed by two men on June 21 in Amravati when he was returning home after closing his store. Kolhe had forwarded messages that were in favour of suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma who had made controversial remarks on the Prophet. The NIA took over the case from the local police. Seven persons were already arrested in the case earlier. The incident took place a week before the killing of a tailor Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur on June 28.
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