Sabarmati jailbreak bid: 4 more sent to nine-day police remand

A local court here Sunday sent four more Ahmedabad serial bomb blast accused to nine-day police remand in connection with the Sabarmati jailbreak attempt. The Crime Branch police Sunday produced them before the Metropolitan court here and sought their custody for 14 days.

However, Metropolitan Magistrate P J Tambakuwala ordered them to be sent to police remand till March 25.

A escape plan had come to light on February 10 when jail authorities stumbled upon a tunnel inside barrack No 4 'Chhota Chakkar' of Sabarmati jail, where 14 of the 68 Ahmedabad serial blasts case accused were lodged. The crime branch had earlier taken custody of 10 accused who were sent back to judicial custody after their interrogation was over.

Branch had sought 14-day remand of the four more accused following revelation that the tunnel dug was 214-foot long and not 26 feet as was earlier believed.

"We have found out that tunnel was 214 feet long and they were only three-foot away from the point from where they would have succeeded in escaping. We want to know why they did not escape when they could have," reads the remand application.

"We also want to know whether there was any plan to bring any explosives into the jail premises from outside," said the application.

During the hearing, two of the four accused complained about physical and mental "torture" by the crime branch officials. "In their effort to extract a suitable confessional statement, investigating officers had physically and mentally tortured them," alleged advocate Khalid Shaikh who represented the accused.

Taking their complaint on record, the court asked the crime branch officials to take both of them to the civil hospital for medical check up and submit a report before the court on next date of hearing.

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