Ahmedabad: A metropolitan court on May 24 remanded to police custody till May 30 three local persons allegedly involved in the murder of former Gujarat Home Minister Haren Pandya, for interrogation to ascertain their role in the series of "tiffin bomb blasts" that rocked the city in 2002.

The trio - Kalim Ahmed alias Mulla Kaleem, one of the main conspirators in Pandya's murder as also the tiffin bomb blast case, Anas Machiswala and Shahnawaz Gandhi - were arrested by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sleuths from Hyderabad in April.

They were sent to judicial custody on May 23 along with Hyderabad-based sharpshooter Asghar Ali and eight others.

Later, Crime Branch had obtained a transfer warrant for their custody for interrogation into a tiffin bomb blast in a municipal bus in Kagdapeeth police station that left 5 injured on May 29, 2002.

Kaleem is reportedly an expert in making bombs and also owned an electronic repair shop in Walled city area, crime branch sources said.

The trio are allegedly involved in a "major conspiracy to foment large scale terrorist activities in Gujarat, including assassination of top political leaders and industrialists, apparently to avenge post-Godhra communal riots."

PTI