HYDERABAD, March 17: The civil judge and judicial magistrate on Saturday remanded an accused Talat Mehmood in 14-day jail custody rejecting police’s plea to hand him over to them after he told the court that he had been subjected to torture during his month long unrecorded detention.

Mr Mehmood is one of the eight detainees found by a group of journalists detained in a room of a filling station off the National Highway on Thursday.

Police, who had reportedly kept them in illegal custody for past one month, whisked them away when the journalists tried to speak to them.

When A-section police station of Latifabad produced Mr Mehmood in court after a whole month on Saturday and accused him of spreading hatred through literature he pleaded that he had been tortured and he be remanded to judicial custody.

Bearded Talat Mehmood showed his hand to the judge saying his hand had been burnt after some chemical was poured on it and the torture had badly affected hearing in one of his ears.

Mr Mehmood’s brother Abdul Rehman Advocate prayed the court that the accused should be remanded to judicial custody. “Police used to keep us in jungles during the day and bring us to some police station at night. I can’t recall the number of police stations we were detained in," Mr Mehmood told journalists.

"I was arrested on Feb 17 at the house of my in-laws in Mumtaz Colony in Makki Shah police station’s area. My family had lodged a non-cognisable offence report with A-section police,” he disclosed.

Mr Rehman showed newspaper clippings containing news story dated March 15 about illegal detention of eight detainees including Talat Mehmood and pleaded the accused be remanded in judicial custody.

Police opposed the request and sought his remand in police custody for investigation. But the judge remanded Mr Mehmood to judicial custody for 14 days.

A-section police informed the court that the accused was arrested in crime No 54/07 under section 126 PPC, which was lodged on the complaint of an ASI of Hussainabad police station.

Hussainabad police claimed they had arrested the accused in crime No 17/07 on charges of robbery but could not prove the charge. The accused, however, confessed to having distributed hatred-inciting literature, police said.

Police claimed to have seized the literature in his house located near Rizvi sub-division of Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) within the jurisdiction of A-section police station and lodged case No 54/07 against him.

Police have not yet produced the remaining seven detainees but sources said that they, too, would be challaned in cases related to activities of militant organisations.