Thane Police officers said on Saturday that inquiries into the call detail records (CDRs) racket so far did not indicate that actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui was directly involved in the case.
The Thane Crime Branch arrested Mr. Siddiqui’s lawyer Rizwan Siddiqui on Friday night for allegedly obtaining the CDRs of the actor’s wife from one of the private detectives arrested earlier in the case. The actor and his wife, too, had been summoned for inquiries.
“Nawazuddin Siddiqui does not have a direct role in the CDR case. He was summoned as a witness and has assured cooperation,” Thane Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh said on Saturday.
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Rizwan was produced in the Thane court on Saturday afternoon and remanded in police custody till March 23.
His firm released a statement claiming that his arrest was in violation of legal procedure. “No Section 41 A notice was served to me, and my client’s confidential data was seized by the police without any court order. Despite my statement being recorded on February 23 in the presence of my client’s brother Shamsuddin Siddiqui, the police did not corroborate the said statement with my client, nor did they bother to follow up with my client. I had already served a letter to the police to let me take permission of the Bar Council before submitting evidence. However, the officer in charge did not pay any heed and arrested me without following due process of the law,” the statement said.
The police, however, refuted these claims. “We had tried to serve a notice under Section 41 A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC ), but advocate Siddiqui refused to accept it and did not cooperate with us. Despite us providing him sufficient opportunities, he did not cooperate with the investigating team. All claims made by him are false and baseless,” an officer with the Thane Crime Branch said.
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Nawazuddin and his wife are expected to visit Unit I of the Thane Crime Branch for inquiries during the next week, sources said.