Indian Mujahideen terrorist not a juvenile, affirms AIIMS
By IANSMonday, March 22, 2010
NEW DELHI - The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Monday told a city court that a suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorist, who claimed to be a minor, was very well a major.
A report of the AIIMS’ medical board, submitted to the court of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaveri Baweja, said that the age of Salman Ahmed alias Chotu is somewhere between 25 to 26 years.
The AIIMS was March 15 directed to constitute a medical board to determine the age of Ahmed after his counsel claimed the accused was a minor at the time of the Delhi serial blasts in September 2008.
Meanwhile, Delhi Police’s Special Cell sought a week-long fresh custodial interrogation of Ahmed, who was arrested March 6 by Anti-Terrorism Squad of Uttar Pradesh police from Siddarth Nagar, about 300 km from Lucknow.
Baweja put the application for Tuesday. She also kept Ahmed’s application claiming himself to be a minor as pending and sent him to judicial custody till Tuesday.
According to police, they have recovered a Nepali passport obtained under a fake name and an international SIM card from Ahmed’s possession.
After his name cropped up in the blast cases, Ahmed moved to Nepal, where he allegedly got the passport issued in June 2009. With the help of the passport, issued in the name of Mohd Fahad Ansari, the IM operative travelled to Pakistan and other countries, they claimed.
He is believed to have gone to Pakistan in December last year and returned to Nepal in January.
The serial blasts in the capital Sept 13, 2008, had claimed 26 lives and left 135 other injured.
