July 10: The Terrorist and Destructive Activities (TADA) Court today ordered that three prime accused in the JJ hospital shoot-out case be remanded to police custody for interrogation.

Designated TADA judge, P K Chawre, ordered that Ahmed Mansoori, Manish Lala and Baba Gabriel, be remanded to police custody. The trio, with 7 others, have been accused of killing Shailesh Haldankar on October 12, 1992 at the Sir J J hospital. While Haldankar was shot dead, his close aide Bipin Shere was seriously injured in the shoot-out. As a result of a Bombay High Court's judgment, the three could never be remanded to police custody though they were arrested by the Mumbai police.

A division bench of the HC comprising Justice Ashok Agrawal and Justice I G Shah had ruled in a judgment that if an accused was arrested after filing the charge-sheet in the case, he could not be remanded to police custody. This judgment was used as a shield by the accused to avoid police custody. As the trio was held after filing the charge-sheet, they were remanded to judicial custody, where the police could not interrogate them ``thoroughly.'' The police had then gone in appeal against the judgment in the Supreme Court and a full bench of the SC had set aside the HC judgment on May 7 this year.

Following this judgement, the police had filed an application before Chawre demanding police custody of the three. Mansoori is under arrest in the 1993 serial bomb blasts case. Lala was out on bail in the JJ shoot-out case, while Gabriel is also under arrest. Special public prosecutor Rohini Salian represented the state.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.