Tunda sent to 14 days’ judicial custody

New Delhi  :  A court here Saturday sent alleged LeT terrorist Abdul Karim Tunda to 14 days’ judicial custody.

Duty Magistrate Ashok Kumar went to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here, where Tunda, 70, is hospitalised and scheduled to undergo surgery Saturday for a pacemaker.

Advocate M.S. Khan, appearing for Tunda, said the proceedings were conducted in the Intensive Cardiac Care Unit of AIIMS.

The judge also allowed Tunda to call his family in Pakistan, using the official phone of the investigating officer, the lawyer said.

The alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist, suspected to be involved in over 40 bombings in the country, had earlier claimed innocence.

Tunda, the one-handed bomb maker arrested by Delhi Police near the India-Nepal border last week, had told the judge that he was “innocent” and did not motivate anyone to carry out blasts.

Tunda had told the court: “I am innocent, I used to teach Quran and in jehad, killing old people, women and children is not permissible.”

Delhi-born Tunda is wanted in several criminal cases in the country and is among India’s 20 top most-wanted terrorists.

In Delhi, he is wanted in 21 terror cases related to 1994, 1996 and 1998.

An aide of fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim, the alleged LeT terrorist was also wanted for suspected involvement in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts.

Tunda was arrested in Uttarakhand’s Banbasa area close to the Nepal border when he was trying to enter India Aug 16.

Tunda was involved in the 1993 Mumbai serial bombings that left over 250 dead, Delhi bomb blasts of 1997-98 and serial bombings in Uttar Pradesh and also in Haryana and Punjab, police said.

Police said he trained young radicals in preparing bombs with locally available materials like urea, nitric acid, potassium chloride, nitrobenzene and sugar, and planting them in crowded places.