After linking the terror strike to Indian Mujahideen, police retract in MCOCA court, saying it was an ‘internal error by a well-meaning officer’

In a move that exposed the carelessness of a key Mumbai Police investigating officer, the Crime Branch today retracted an attempt to link the 26/11 terror attacks to the Indian Mujahideen men blamed for the Delhi and Ahmedabad blasts last year, barely 24 hours after the process was set in motion in a MCOCA court. The explanation: an “internal error by a well-meaning officer”.

On Friday, a remand application filed by the Crime Branch before the special MCOCA judge sought further judicial custody of the 20 Indian Mujahideen operatives arrested in connection with the Bangalore, Delhi and Gujarat blasts, saying they needed to be questioned in connection with 26/11. Justifying the need for such remand, the application said that one of the 26/11 terrorists had demanded the release of these Indian Mujahideen men from custody in an interview to a TV channel during the three-day siege.

“The terrorists who died in the recent incidents at Taj Hotel, Oberoi Hotel, Nariman House, CST, Cama Hospital and Girgaum Chowpatty, while talking to India TV channel, said that they were also Mujahideens and demanded to set free the Indian Mujahideen activists who are the same accused arrested in this case,” said the application drafted by Assistant Commissioner of Police Ashok Duraphe. “Taking into consideration this demand, the possibility of their link to the said recent incident needs to be further probed.”

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