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Another suspect remanded, he also faces MCOCA

Mumbai: Sudhakar Chaturvedi, who is on the radar of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad in the Malegaon blast case, was produced in a sessions court on Friday. Additional sessions judge Y.D. Shinde remanded him to police custody till December 3.

The Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act (MCOCA) has been invoked against Chaturvedi, besides 10 other suspects.

He was earlier arrested by the Matunga police here on November 4 for possessing a fake military identity card and a revolver.

On his role in the September 29 blast, public prosecutor Rohini Salian said, “He is from Abhinav Bharat and he was close to Purohit. We have other evidence, but very few grounds have been mentioned in the remand copy; the rest is in the case diaries. The investigation is still at a nascent stage.”

Defence lawyer Naveen Chomal told the media that the prosecution stated in the court that Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit had, during narco tests, mentioned Chaturvedi’s name.

Mr. Chomal said Chaturvedi gave a signed statement to the court that he did not want to make any confession.

“The court accepted this application. It was done in anticipation of police torture. Because the police do not have a case, they are drawing out confessions through ill-treatment.”

He said he would challenge the charge levelled under the MCOCA. The Act “requires two previous charge sheets against the accused. They [ATS] have circumvented the law and applied MCOCA,” he said.Lawyers of most of the suspects also plan to challenge the ATS invoking the MCOCA against them.

Purohit, who was under police custody in a forgery case in Pune, has been remanded to 14 days’ judicial custody.

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