Pune, May 16 (PTI): A court here has extended police custody of Maoist leader K Muralidharan and his aide C P Ismail till May 21.

The duo, arrested by Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on May 8 under various sections of IPC and Unlawful Assembly Prevention Act (UAPA) at village Talegaon-Dabhade near here, had earlier been remanded to police custody for seven days.

The ATS, which produced the accused in court yesterday on expiry of previous remand, contended that extension of the custody of the accused who belonged to the banned outfit CPI (Maoist) was necessary to enable further investigations into their network and activities.

The ATS has recovered propaganda material along with fake Aadhar cards from the accused, ATS, Pune unit inspector Bhanupratap Barge said.

As the accused was wanted for many offences in the south, a team of Kerala Police was expected to take them to that state for further interrogation, he said.