Karnataka police begins Bhatkal’s interrogation

 

Bangalore, Jan 18, 2014 (PTI): City police today began interrogation of the Indian Mujahideen co-founder Yasin Bhatkal on his alleged involvement in the Chinnaswamy cricket stadium blast case.

 

"We have begun Bhatkal’s interrogation in Chinnaswamy stadium blast case and he will be in our custody till January 28," City Police Commissioner Raghavendra Auradkar told PTI.

 

Bhatkal, under judicial custody in Tihar Jail in connection with various terror attack cases, was brought to the city yesterday. "He was handed over to us by National Investigative Agency last night," Auradkar said.

 

Bhatkal was brought here after the court allowed the application by Karnataka police seeking Bhatkal’s custody, the Commissioner said.

 

However, the top police official did not reveal the location of Bhatkal’s stay.

 

Fifteen people, including some security personnel, were injured in the low intensity blasts on April 17, 2010, hours before an IPL match between Royal Challengers and Mumbai Indians at the Chinnaswamy stadium.

 

The NIA’s Hyderabad unit had earlier taken Bhatkal and his aide Asadullah Akhtar to Hyderabad in connection with the Dilsukhnagar blasts after their arrest last year on September 21 and September 17.

 

The blasts in Hyderabad had claimed 16 lives. The accused duo was arrested by NIA from the Indo-Nepal border on August 28 last year.

 

Bhatkal, who hails from Bhatkal village in Udupi district, was allegedly involved in a string of terror attacks in Surat, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Pune, Delhi and Hyderabad, the NIA had said.

 

Bhatkal, earlier associated with the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), is alleged to have hatched a conspiracy with others to wage a war against India.