ADILABAD: Police questioned MIM MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi for the fourth consecutive day on Tuesday. Arrested on January 8 for delivering hate speeches, the MLA was granted police custody for five days beginning January 12. The police custody will end on Wednesday.

According to sources, Akbaruddin contested police claim that it was his voice in the video recording of the alleged meeting at Nirmal on December 22, 2012, that was aired on Youtube . Akbaruddin was said to have told investigators that he had not made any inflammatory speech and that his voice was doctored by someone with an ulterior motive to tarnish his image. The MLA reportedly made these comments after police showed him a video CD of the speech.

Senior police officers, however, refused to confirm whether Akbaruddin made such a claim. Karimnagar range DIG Bheema Naik said, “We would not like to react to what the MIM MLA’s lawyers may want to say.” Naik said it was not proper on the part of police to reveal the details of the investigation to the media.

Akbaruddin’s petition seeking special category prisoner status will come for hearing on Wednesday.

