Mumbai: Malegaon blast accused Lokesh Sharma,
on Wednesday approached the Bombay High Court challenging a special
court`s order remanding him in the custody of National
Investigation Agency(NIA).
"NIA has not even shown to have formally arrested Lokesh
in the Malegaon case... then how can they take his custody and
question him. He (Lokesh) is being tortured at the NIA
headquarters in Delhi where he is lodged. The agency is trying
to forcibly take his confession," Lokesh`s lawyer Ganesh
Sovani argued before the court.
A division bench of Justices V M Kanade and P D Kode has
posted the matter for hearing on March 7.
The NIA had taken Lokesh`s custody from the Panchkula
court, where he was in judicial custody in connection with the
Samjhauta train bombing case, and produced him before special
MCOCA court here on February 27. Lokesh was then remanded in
NIA custody till March 9.
The agency had sought Lokesh`s custody to question him
in connection with the September 29, 2008 Malegaon blast in
which six people were killed.
Sharma, a close associate of Sunil Joshi (the suspected
`mastermind` behind the blasts who was later murdered),
allegedly also planted a bomb on Samjhauta Express.
The name of Lokesh, who hails from Indore, had cropped
up in Ajmer and Mecca Masjid blasts of Hyderabad. He was
arrested on June 17, 2010 for the Ajmer blasts and on June 18,
2011 for Samjhauta blasts where the probe agency alleged that
he was also one of the suspects who planted the bomb.
PTI
