Patna, Aug. 31: Police today said they cannot take sole credit for Yasin Bhatkal’s arrest and also justified not seeking his remand, saying no case was lodged against him in Bihar.

Director-general of police (DGP) Abhayanand said:“The state police cannot claim sole credit for Bhatkal’s arrest. A team comprising IB personnel, the NIA and the Bihar police nabbed the duo from Raxaul in the small hours of Thursday. After being nabbed, they were taken to an undisclosed location in Bettiah for interrogation. It is wrong to say the Bihar police didn’t ask him questions, as the team comprised officers of the state police too.” After their arrest, the duo was taken to Udaipur forest guesthouse, around 12km west of Bettiah town, where security personnel interrogated him for about two hours. They were then taken to Motihari and kept at the Police Lines for questioning and from there to the chief judicial magistrate’s court where NIA procured a transit remand and took them to Patna. “The men have no cases against them in the state and hence they were not taken on remand. And it is the NIA, which is looking into cases of terrorist strikes in the country,” he added.

The DGP’s statement comes after the Opposition (BJP) attacked the police and the state government, alleging Bihar cops neither made any efforts to interrogate Bhatkal nor pleaded for his remand.

The DGP refused comment about Bhatkal giving out information on the Bodhgaya serial blasts. Sources, however, said earlier, during interrogations, Bhatkal, had said the Indian Mujahideen had done a recce of Bodhgaya before the blasts.