Nagpur: More than two hours after midnight, a city magistrate threw open his residence and turned it into a courtroom to hear a police petition to arrest 43-year-old Sunita Jamgade, who was escorted to Nagpur by train via Delhi early Thursday. The extraordinary circumstances necessitated taking Sunita into custody before sunrise. On May 14, the former nurse crossed the Line of Control (LoC) near Kargil and went missing for nine days before she was handed over to Indian agencies by Pakistan rangers on May 23.After swiftly completing formalities of registering a regular FIR shortly after midnight, police rushed to magistrate AU Mote’s residence to get the nod to arrest Sunita. The judicial assent helped cops to whisk her away to a woman’s lock-up at Pardi police station after informing her family. Within hours, she was again escorted back to court for another round of arguments for police remand, which was granted till June 2. Talking to TOI, Zonal DCP Niketan Kadam said, “Sunita’s cell phone was found formatted, and she has begun talking with a suspicious app. We will seek forensic assistance to recover data. Her nine-day stay in Pakistan is one of the key objectives of the probe, apart from the route she took to cross the LoC.”During a brief interrogation, she told police that she accidentally strayed into Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, while trying to search for a nursing job in Kargil. “We need to verify her claims and seek details from Regional Mental Hospital, where she visited on May 2. We need to examine her handset and SIM for possible spyware,” said Kadam, adding Sunita left Nagpur with her teenage son on May 4 and landed in Kargil on May 9. Police sources privy to her interrogation said she was constantly changing her versions and even claimed to have visited Kargil as her son wanted to see snow-capped mountains. Sunita reached Nagpur at 10.20 pm on Wednesday, escorted by a four-member police team on Sampark Kranti Express.Senior Inspector Satish Ade of Kapil Nagar police station argued in court that Sunita’s custody was important to extract her cell phone data and unravel what she did in Pakistan.Police also argued in court that Sunita’s contacts in Pakistan, including one Zulfikar alias Zulfi, who had a Hindu title, need to be ascertained. Police are also trying to ascertain details about the mysterious pastor in her life and how she managed to cross the LoC on May 14. Sunita will now be lodged at the woman’s lockup at Pardi police station with women guards and CCTV surveillance. Her north Nagpur residence will also be searched.
