Naeem Khan and Riyaz Siddiqui, the two arrested aides of extradited gangster Abu Salem, were on Tuesday remanded to police custody till January 3 by a TADA court in Mumbai in the Pradeep Jain murder case.
Naeem, who allegedly operated from Dubai for many years, was arrested by the Anti-Terrorist Squad of Mumbai Police soon after he arrived from Dubai on Monday evening.
Riyaz, a native of Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, on the other hand, was summoned for questioning on Monday and later placed under arrest.
The duo was produced in the court of Special TADA Judge, P V Bavkar Tuesday afternoon, where Special Public Prosector Ujjwal Nikam said Riyaz was the person who is alleged to have executed the murder of Pradeep Jain.
"Investigations show that before Jain was murdered, Riyaz went to Dubai, where he allegedly had a meeting with Salem, Anees Ibrahim and others," Nikam told the court.
As regards Naeem, the prosecution said he was Salem's close aide and allegedly managed finances for Jain's killers before and after the murder.
"The ATS needs custody of Riyaz and Naeem for atleast 30 days to find out who the other assailants of Jain were," Nikam said, adding since the prosecution would depend on circumstantial evidence in this conspiracy case, the custody of the two accused was necessary to corroborate evidence.
Pradeep Jain, a builder, was murdered in March 1995, allegedly at the behest of Salem who wanted Jain to forego a prime piece of land in suburban Andheri.
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