PATIALA: The court of additional sessions judge Sanjay Agnihotri on Wednesday remanded Jagtar Singh Johal alias Jaggi into the custody of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) till January 22. Earlier, he had been in seven days’ custody of the NIA till January 2 and then sent into 30-day judicial custody. He had been lodged at Nabha’s Maximum Security Jail.
Jaggi was taken out of the Nabha’s Maximum Security Jail on Wednesday morning and produced before the court during the early hours of proceedings that were held in camera. According to the sources, Jaggi could not be produced in the designated court of special NIA Judge Anshul Berry as he was on leave.
The NIA told the court that they had to further interrogate Jaggi to extract more information about his role in the targeted killings following which the court ordered that he be sent in NIA remand for five days.
Confirming the development, Jaggi’s lawyer Jaspal Singh Manjpur said he learnt about the court’s decision at around 12 today, but by then the NIA had already taken away Jaggi. He lamented that the NIA bypassed the legal procedures as he had not been informed about his appearance in the court and he could not represent his client in the court.
He also contended that Jaggi had been arrested on December 4, last year, and as per the law, he could be taken on remand only during the initial 30 days of the arrest. As this period was already over, the NIA was required to file a detailed request before the court along with an affidavit explaining why Jaggi had to be taken into their remand.
“However, I have not been provided with any such documents”, Manjhpur said.
The name of Jagtar Singh Jaggi had cropped up during the investigations of the targeted killing that had taken place in the state over the last one year. He had been detained by the Punjab police from the Jalandhar on December 4, last year, where he had come to get married. He was in Punjab police custody till the NIA took over the investigations of the case registered against him.