Sunday, July 3 2005 10:15 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Amit Jogi, son of former Chattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi and arrested in connection with the murder of an NCP (Nationalist Congress Party) leader, was yesterday (July 2, 2005) remanded to six days CBI custody by a Delhi court, which accepted the agency's plea that his interrogation was "required to unearth the conspiracy behind the crime".

After hearing a two-hour argument from both sides, Metropolitan magistrate V K Khanna remanded Amit till July 8, with the CBI seeking time "for unearthing the conspiracy behind the murder, to recover some weapons and investigate some money transactions."

The CBI, which plans to take Amit to Raipur where the crime took place and other parts of Chattisgarh as part of investigations, also proposes to subject him to lie detector and other scientific tests.

Terming Amit as the "mastermind of the murder" to eliminate NCP treasurer Ram Avtar Jaggi, CBI claimed that, "It had concrete evidence that the accused had "full knowledge of the criminal conspiracy, involvement of various conspirators, arrangement of money for executing the plan and arrangement of weapon for the murder and the killers".

Amit was arrested by the CBI on July 1, 2005 after being questioned for five hours in connection with the murder two years ago, which had created a political storm in Chattisgarh.

The CBI had initially requested 14 days custody of the accused, which the defence fiercely opposed saying there was nothing much to be investigated at this stage with all the co-accused arrested and most of the recoveries made.

Asked for his comments by the huge posse of waiting media persons while being whisked out of the court, Amit said, " I will speak out at an appropriate time".