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Police given custody of Ajmal till January 6

Mumbai: The Mumbai terror attacks accused, Mohammad Ajmal Amir, was on Wednesday remanded to police custody till January 6 in a case pertaining to the hijacking of a Skoda on the night of November 26. The case has been registered at the Marine Drive police station.

On November 26, Ajmal and his partner Mohammad Ismail, who were fleeing in a police Qualis from Cama Hospital, stopped a Skoda at gunpoint at Vidhan Bhavan and rode off in it.

In addition to the Skoda case, one more case in connection with the Trident-Oberoi attacks has been registered at the same police station.

For the entire series of terror attacks in Mumbai, the police have registered 12 cases and as many against Ajmal.

Cases have been registered at six police stations in the city D.B. Marg, Marine Drive, Colaba, Azad Maidan, Byculla and Ville Parle.

One case was registered at the at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) railway police station under the Government Railway Police (GRP) for the attack at the station. This case has been transferred to the Crime Branch, said Additional Director General of Police (Railways) K.P. Raghuvanshi.

Ajmal is directly involved in the attacks at the CST, Cama Hospital, Metro and Byculla. In other cases such as the Taj, Oberoi and Ville Parle, he has been indicted for being part of the conspiracy.

On Tuesday, Ajmal was given police custody the second time. His first custody was in connection with the case of killing of Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare, encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar and Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Khamte. With a trail of 12 cases, a long series of police remands is in store for him.

The authorities are still in the process of deciding about legal aid for him. So far, he is without a counsel.

With the lone surviving terrorist being their only apparent bet in the terror case, the Mumbai police is taking no chances with his security.

On Tuesday, magistrate N.N. Shrimangale visited the Crime Branch once again to conduct the remand proceedings.

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