Hyderabad blasts suspect in judicial custody

Manzar Imam, one of the suspects in the February 21 twin-terror blasts in Hyderabad is being produced in a special court in Kochi yesterday.

By Ashraf Padanna/Thiruvananthapuram

A court in Kerala’s port city of Kochi yesterday remanded Manzar Imam, a suspect in last month’s twin blasts in Hyderabad city, in judicial custody for two weeks.

The blasts killed 16 people and injured over 100.

He is suspected in the 2008 Ahmedabad bombings that killed 56.

He was arrested by the National Investigating Agency from the eastern city of Ranchi on Sunday.

Imam, an alleged member of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), was taken to Kochi on Monday evening and was sent to jail for an identification parade in connection with an alleged training camp held in the tourist hotspot of Vagamon in Kerala.  

Sources said the NIA and the Intelligence Bureau will seek custody of the 34-year-old after the identification parade. They said Imam was an “important functionary” of the banned group.

Six of the 30 campers, mainly from Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, are also wanted in Kerala on charges of sedition and criminal conspiracy in connection with the training in bomb making and use of weapons.

Imam’s family denied he was involved in any terror activities alleged he was being “punished” for being an educated Muslim youth who had won a gold medal in 2007 after topping the Urdu postgraduate examinations under Ranchi University.