Suspected IM operative's judicial custody extended till June 5

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court today extended till June 5 the judicial custody of suspected Indian Mujahideen operative Faizan Ahmed Sultan, who was arrested after being deported from Sharjah in connection with a case of waging war against the country.

55-year-old Sultan was produced before district judge I S Mehta after expiry of his judicial custody and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) informed the court that its probe in the case was going on. Sultan was arrested by NIA on May 2 at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here after he was deported from Sharjah.

According to the probe agency, he was wanted in various cases in India for allegedly conspiring for waging war against the country, raising funds for terrorist acts and recruitment of persons for the banned terror group. An Interpol Red Corner notice was issued against him to secure his provisional arrest in Sharjah.

NIA has arrested Sultan in connection with a case lodged in 2012 relating to the larger conspiracy of IM operatives to wage war against the country by carrying out various terror strikes in India.

The agency had earlier filed two charge sheets in the case against nine suspected IM operatives, including its co-founder Yasin Bhatkal and his close aide Asadullah Akhtar alias Haddi. Sultan, a resident of Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, had gone to Pakistan on a fake passport and had undergone arms training there, the agency had said.

NIA had said that Sultan was being probed for allegedly having harboured other absconding IM operatives and providing assistance to the banned terror group by raising funds from Gulf countries.