Malegaon accused Kulkarni in custody for assaulting pastor

Pune, Nov 19 (IANS) A court in Khadki near here Wednesday sent Malegaon bomb blast accused Samir Kulkarni to a day's police custody remand to facilitate investigation in a case relating to the beating up of a pastor about one-and-a-half years ago.

An activist of right-wing Hindu group Abhinav Bharat who shifted to Madhya Pradesh from Pune about 18 months ago, Kulkarni is suspected to have spearheaded an attack on the Vineyard Church in Popadi near Khadki during which the pastor, Rev. Peter David Salve, was beaten up.

The police, who had released a sketch of the absconding assaulter on the basis of the description given by the pastor, approached the Anti-Terrorism Squad officers upon noticing similarities between Kulkarni and the sketch.

Armed with Kulkarni's transfer remand from the Khadki court, police brought him here from the Nashik central jail where he was in judicial custody in the Malegaon case.