Pune court sends Zubair Hangargekar to judicial custody until Nov 28 in ATS terror links probe

PUNE: A special court in Pune on Friday sent software engineer Zubair Hangargekar to judicial custody till November 28.

He was arrested by the Pune unit of Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) from the Kondhwa area of Pune City on 27 October for his alleged connections with the terror group Al Qaeda. He is also suspected of being involved in radicalisation activities, said an ATS official.

The ATS on Friday in Pune court sought his judicial custody while reserving its right to seek the remaining 11 days of police custody at a later stage. The court accepted the request and sent him to 14 days of judicial custody.

During the hearing of remand proceedings in court, ATS informed the court that searches conducted earlier this week at a location related to the accused had led to the recovery of an old mobile phone belonging to Hangargekar.

During the investigation, it was found that the seized mobile had some international numbers saved in the contact list, including one from Pakistan, as well as others from Gulf countries such as Saudi Arab and Oman.

However, the prosecution informed the court that during questioning, Hangargekar stated he could not recall anything about those numbers.

Therefore, further time was needed to analyse the data recovered from the phone and one laptop, which has around 1 TB of data; thus, at this moment, judicial custody is required. (ANI)