Mathura, Feb 15 (PTI) The judicial custody of a Popular Front of India's student wing leader, accused of funding PFI activists for creating unrest after the death of a gangrape victim of a Hathras village, was on Monday extended till March 2.
Arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in Kerala in a money laundering case and brought to Mathura by the UP STF in a case lodged against him for allegedly funding activists to foment trouble over the Hathras incident, PFI's student wing leader Rauf Sheriff was on Sunday remanded in judicial custody for a day by the duty magistrate.
The Campus Front of India leader, Sheriff, was on Monday produced before Additional District and Sessions Judge Anil Kumar Pandey who remanded him in judicial custody for 14 days, District Government Counsel Shiv Ram Singh said.
ASJ Pandey extended judicial Sheriff's custody overruling his counsel's objections to it, said Singh.
Sheriff would again be produced before the court on March 2 along with his four alleged accomplices, Delhi-based Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan and three other PFI activists Atiqur Rahman, Alam and Masood, he said.
The Mathura court had issued production warrant for Sheriff on UP STF's charge that he was involved in funding Delhi-based Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan, allegedly a PFI activist, and his three associates to foment trouble after the death of a gangrape victim of a Hathras village.
Kappan and his alleged accomplices Atiqur Rahman, Alam and Masood were arrested by the UP police on October 5 when they were on their way to Hathras.
The four were arrested earlier on the apprehension of causing a breach of peace but were later slapped with stern charges of sedition and being involved in various terror offences.
Objecting to the extension of judicial custody for Sheriff, his counsel Madhubahn Datt Chaturvedi accused the STF of having his illegal custody.
While the Mathura court had ordered jail Ernakulam authorities to present accused Rauf Sheriff before it on February 2, the jail authorities had refused to hand over his custody to the STF without the proper court order, Chaturvedi contended before the court.
Neither the STF has collected evidence against the accused for charges nor warrant order was proper as the same should have been issued on Form 36, argued Chaturvedi.
After the court overruled his arguments, Chaturvedi later told reporters that he would challenge the sessions court order in the Allahabad High Court.
