India: Police custody extended till June 12 for Hindutva thugs involved in Pune Murder

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Pune-murder-17-sent-to-police-custody-till-Thursday/articleshow/36327746.cms

Pune murder: 17 sent to police custody till Thursday
Vishwas Kothari,TNN | Jun 10, 2014, 07.16 AM IST

PUNE: A court on Monday remanded in police custody till June 12 all the 17 suspects arrested so far in the murder of 28-year-old Mohsin Shaikh in the city.

"From the perusal of case diary, it appears there is progress in the investigation," judicial magistrate first class (JMFC) P D Zambre said in his order. "The allegations against the accused are well founded. Hence, police custody is justified. The accused are remanded in police custody till June 12."

On the night of June 2, Mohsin, a manager with the IT department of a textile unit, and his friend Riyaz Ahmed Mubarak Shendru were attacked with hockey sticks, wooden stumps and bats by a gang of 30 to 40 youths protesting against certain objectionable posts on social networking sites. The two were attacked at Satav plot, Bankar colony in Hadapsar while returning home after offering prayers at a mosque. Mohsin succumbed to the injuries sustained in the attack.

Seven accused in the case were arrested on June 3 and eight on June 4. The court had ordered police custody remand for these 15 accused till Monday. Besides, two minors detained in the same crime were sent to remand home following orders by a juvenile justice court.

On Sunday, two more accused — Pratik Sangle (20) and Prasad Pansare (22), both from Phursungi in Pune— were arrested. The duo, along with the 15 others, were produced before JMFC Zambre at the Pune cantonment court on Monday.

Assistant commissioner of police Gopinath Patil, who is the investigating officer, moved a plea through public prosecutor B R Patil, seeking seven days' police custody for all the 17 accused. Patil justified the remand plea on the grounds that the police had to arrest three more suspects, needed to recover the mobile phone of three of the arrested suspects, bring all the accused face-to-face for a joint interrogation and establish the motive behind the murder. Besides, they need to establish whether the murder was executed at the behest of some other person and whether there was a conspiracy behind the crime.

Patil said the police had established all the arrested suspects were members of the Hindu Rashtra Sena. The weapons, vehicles and other articles used by the attackers — including hockey sticks, wooden stumps, eight motorcycles and 16 mobile handsets and clothes — have been recovered and the medical examination of all the 15 suspects in custody till Monday has been done. The phone calls and messages shared by the suspects are being analyzed.

Opposing the police plea, defence lawyer Smita Nikam said none of the suspects had so far been named in the FIR and a further extension of custody was not called for since most of the investigation had already been done by the police.

HRS leader's judicial custody extended

Pune: Hindu Rashtra Sena (HRS) leader Dhananjay Desai moved a bail plea after the court of judicial magistrate first class D B Malhatkar on Monday remanded him in judicial custody for 14 days in a case related to the distribution of pamphlets carrying inciting and hate messages at Kadam Vak Vasti in the Pune rural area. The Loni Kalbhor police had registered a case in this connection on March 17. Desai and two others were arrested on June 4. Assistant public prosecutor Rajendra Suryawanshi told TOI Desai's bail application was expected to be heard on Tuesday.