KOCHI: The Ernakulam NIA Special Court on Friday remanded Thamar Asharaf of Velloorkunnam, the 37th accused in the palm-chopping case, in police custody for five days.He was arrested by the National Investigation agency (NIA) on Thursday night. Asharaf, who had gone abroad immediately after the incident, was declared by the police as an absconder. The accused was taken into custody from his house at Velloorkunnam in Ernakulam district. Judge S Vijayakumar gave him in police custody from February 23 onwards.“Asharaf had provided funds to the other accused in the case to carry out the attack on the professor. The agency also suspected that the funds from abroad for the operation had come to his account in the state. Sabotaging religious harmony was the motive behind the palm-chopping incident,” the NIA submitted. The NIA further said that the custodial interrogation of the accused was absolutely essential since it was a terrorist case and was within the knowledge of the accused alone. His custody was needed to collect more evidence. “We have to find out the source of funding involved in the case as well as the relation of the accused with terrorist outfits,” the NIA said. The agency had asked ten days’ custody of the accused, but the court reduced it to five days. With the arrest of Asharaf, the number of people arrested in the case has gone up to 31, of which 10 are in judicial custody.T J Joseph, a teacher of Malayalam language at Newman College, Thodupuzha, was attacked on July 4, 2010, when he was returning home with his family from church. He was pulled out of the car and his right palm chopped off.He was attacked for setting a question paper having blasphemous content.
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