A Delhi court on Tuesday granted permission to formally arrest separatist leaders Asiya Andrabi, Masarat Alam and Shabir Shah in connection with a terror funding case involving Lashkar-e-Taiba co-founder Hafiz Saeed.

The trio has been sent to National Investigation Agency (NIA) custody for 10 days.

The three separatists, currently lodged in Tihar jail, faced an investigation conducted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the NIA.

The probe agency had filed an FIR on May 30, 2017, against the separatists. They were charged with conniving with terrorists of organisations such as Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Dukhtaran-e-Millat chief Asiya, and Shah were already in custody in separate cases while Alam was brought from Jammu and Kashmir on transit remand, advocate MS Khan appearing for the accused told PTI.

While Shah was in judicial custody in a decade-old money laundering case for alleged terror financing, Andrabi was in jail in a case of allegedly waging a war against the country and delivering hate speeches in Jammu and Kashmir.

According to the NIA, Shah had received Rs 10 lakh from hawala operator Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watal, a co-accused in the case.

Besides, the money was also sent to the banned outfit Dukhtaraan-e-Milat of which Andrabi was the chief, NIA said.

The NIA arrested them before the court and sought their custodial interrogation for 15-days.

The NIA's submission was opposed by defence advocates who said that the accused were already in custody and the NIA could interrogate them and there was no need of custodial interrogation.