A special NIA court in Patiala on Saturday extended the custody of the four accused in the Delhi Red Fort blast case — Dr Muzammil Shakeel, Dr Shaheen Saeed, Mufti Irfan Ahmad and Adeel Ahmed — for another 10 days. The extension was granted after the four were produced before the court at the end of their earlier 10-day remand, which the National Investigation Agency had secured on November 20. All four were taken into NIA custody from Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir.
The accused were initially detained by Jammu and Kashmir Police for suspected involvement in a terror module linked to the November 10 blast near Delhi’s Red Fort, where a slow-moving i20 car halted at a traffic light before exploding, killing 14 people and injuring several others.
Three of the accused — Shakeel, Shaheen Saeed and Adeel Ahmed — were associated with Al-Falah University, which is now under close scrutiny for suspected terror links. Umar Un Nabi, identified as the suicide bomber, was also enrolled at the same institution. As part of the investigation, the NIA earlier took Shaheen Saeed to the university campus for on-site questioning and will take her to Lucknow and Kanpur for further interrogation.
The agency plans to take all seven suspects connected to the case to Lucknow, Kanpur, Saharanpur, Faridabad and Jammu & Kashmir — locations that are believed to have relevance to the blast probe. The NIA is examining the network of contacts, financial support, logistical backing and potential safehouses linked to the accused. Investigators suspect the presence of a coordinated network of medical professionals operating under the guise of legitimate practice to assist the terror module.
With the custody now extended, the NIA is expected to intensify its interrogation and evidence-collection process to determine the full operational structure of the group believed to be behind the deadly attack near the Red Fort.
