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Suspected Al Qaeda terrorist to confess on Dec 18; teams from UK, Australia in India

Meanwhile, police teams from the United Kingdom and Australia had met their counterparts in Mumbai to exchange information about Afroz and his revelations.

Afroz had filed an application on December 11 urging the magistrate to record his confession.

After being given two days to think over his decision, Afroz was produced before the magistrate.

Heeding a plea by Afroz's father, Magistrate V P Taware ordered that Afroz be produced on December 18 to give a voluntary confession under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC).

Twenty-five-year-old Afroz had allegedly conspired with others to blow up the House of Commons in London, Parliament House in New Delhi and Romal Towers in Sydney (Australia).

Afroz is said to have told the Mumbai police that he was in the squad meant for attack in Britain and that he had undergone pilot training courses for flying Boeing aircraft.

Stepping into the witness box, Afroz told the magistrate that the police had not pressurised him to make a confession and that he had come to the court on his own accord.

"It is also not true that I am mentally sick and I do not want to undergo any psychiatric treatment," Afroz told the magistrate in fluent English.

His father, Abdul Razak, made an application praying that Afroz be given more time to think over whether he should make a confession.

He alleged that police had refused him and his relatives to meet Afroz in the jail and that they had pressurised him to make a statement.

He also urged the court through lawyer C K Dave to send his son to the J J hospital for treatment as he was mentally sick.

Prosecutor Prema Ranade denied allegations of torture following which the magistrate permitted Abdul Razak to have a brief interview with his son inside the court.

On a defence plea, the magistrate directed the jail authorities not to allow any police officers to meet the accused in jail.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal told reporters that police teams from the United Kingdom and Australia had met their counterparts in Mumbai to exchange information about Afroz and his revelations.

A team of the Mumbai police will also visit these countries along with officers of central agencies.

Bhujbal said that the foreign teams had not so far interrogated Afroz as he was in magisterial custody. They would prefer to wait for some more time till the legal process was over, he added.

According to a statement made by Bhujbal in the state legislature on December 6, Afroz had confessed that he frequently visited Australia, USA, United Kingdom, Hong Kong and China between 1997 and 2001.

Afroz has been charged under sections 120-b (conspiracy), 121 (waging war against the nation) and 126 (committing degradation on the territories of power at peace with Government of India) of the Indian Penal Code. He was arrested on December 3.

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