26/11: Custody for Qasab till Feb 13

Mohammed Ajmal Amir Qasab, the lone terrorist arrested for his involvement in the Mumbai terror strikes, was on Monday remanded in police custody till February 13 for murdering the captain of a Gujarat-based fishing vessel.

Qasab, whose police custody in the Chhatrapati Shivaji rail terminus firing case ended today, has been booked in 12 cases by the city police and is in judicial custody in five other cases.

The terrorist, arrested on November 26, was not produced in the court today due to security concerns and Additional Metropolitan Magistrate N Shrimangale and Additional Public Prosecutor EB Dhamal were taken to an undisclosed location where he is being kept.

"It was argued that the police had to carry out further investigations in the case for which custody was needed," Dhamal said. When asked by the magistrate, Qasab said he had no complaints against the police, he said.

Qasab, a resident of Faridkot in Pakistan, had no legal representation today and did not make any request for a lawyer during the proceedings, Dhamal said.

The 10 terrorists, who were involved in the November 26 terror attacks allegedly set sail from Karachi in Pakistan in a vessel 'Al-Husseini' after which they hijacked the Gujarat-based fishing boat MV Kuber on November 23.

After taking four crew members of the fishing vessel on board the Al-Husseini, Qasab and his nine associates sailed to within a few nautical miles of Mumbai aboard the Kuber and then killed its captain, Ajay Singh Solanki.

The fishing vessel and its deceased captain, whose throat had been cut, were found drifting off the coast of Mumbai. The bodies of other crew members were not found.

Also, a GPS device, satellite phone and rations alleged to have originated from Pakistan were found onboard the Kuber by authorities.

The shootout at Girgaum Chowpatty, ambush on a police vehicle near Rang Bhavan auditorium which left three senior police officials dead, a vehicle theft case at Marine Drive, the shootout at Cama Hospital and the shootout at CST are the five other cases in which Qasab is presently in judicial custody.

Over 160 persons were killed and more than 300 injured in the attacks carried out by ten terrorists at locations like the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Hotels Taj and Trident and Nariman House.

Nine of the 10 terrorists, allegedly belonging to the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, were killed in the standoff with security forces.