The National Investigation Agency (NIA) Special Court in New Delhi has sentenced five accused, including a Kashmiri couple, to varying prison terms for their involvement in a plot by the outlawed Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISKP) group to propagate the ideology of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and incite terror in India through violent acts.
The convicts include 36-year-old Jahanzaib Sami, also known as Dawood Ibrahim, Xaib, Abu Muhammed Al-Hind, and Abu Abdulla, from Srinagar, Kashmir; his wife Hina Bashir, a native of Kashmir; Abdullah Basith, a resident of Hyderabad; and Sadiya Anwar Shaikh and Nabeel Siddick Khatri, both from Pune.
They are charged under various sections for their alleged association with the banned Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), an affiliate of ISIS. The charges include conspiring to generate disaffection against the government, promoting enmity among different religious communities, and carrying out subversive activities.
Jahanzaib Sami Wani and his wife Hina Bashir Beigh were taken into custody by the Delhi Police Special Cell on March 8, 2020, on charges of having connections with the ISKP. The couple intended to carry out anti-national and subversive activities in India. The NIA re-registered the case on March 20, 2020, and began its inquiry, during which it also apprehended Sadiya Anwar Shaikh and Nabeel Siddick Khatri from Pune on July 12, 2020.
The NIA court sentenced Jahanzaib Sami, who pleaded guilty to a range of jail terms from 3 to 20 years, including a fine, for offences under sections 17, 18, 38, and 13 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) as well as sections 120B and 124A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). He was accused of plotting to create a caliphate in India and organising 100 Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) explosions across the nation in a single day.
Additional sessions judge Chander Jit Singh observed, “For any organisation to survive, continue, and act to achieve its objectives, availability and movement of funds is one of the most important factors. In the absence of funds, despite having the most dedicated cadre, an organisation cannot inch forward. Therefore, to say that funds are the lifeline of an organisation would not be an exaggeration.” According to the NIA, the perpetrator incited the minority community by disseminating hateful slogans, drawing graffiti in public areas, and posting it on social media and global media sites.
The court elaborated on the conviction of Jahanzaib Sami, stating, “Convict Jahanzaib Sami was also involved in procuring arms, remote of IED, and suicide jackets. He was also involved in raising funds through Bitcoin, which is a veiled method of raising funds online, therefore, he can be said to be a person of reasonable intelligence who cannot take shelter under the arguments of not understanding the impact of his (mis)deeds.”
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) investigation revealed that Sami was raising, receiving, and providing funds through cryptocurrency to promote the ideology of ISIS, a banned global terror outfit. He was also exploiting the sentiments of gullible youth to fuel the anti-CAA/NRC (Citizenship Amendment Act/National Register of Citizens) protests.
Hina Bashir Beigh, the second accused, has been sentenced to seven years in prison for each of the two offences under sections 38 and 39 of the UAPA. She admitted to being an ISIS member and assisting her husband in finding others who shared her beliefs to further the terrorist group’s plans against India.
Abdullah Basith has been sentenced to the time he has already served after being found guilty under sections 38 and 39 of the UAPA. He supported Jahanzaib Sami in compiling the ISIS magazine “Voice of Hind,” as determined by the NIA investigation.
The accused, Sadiya Anwar Shaikh, was determined culpable of violating sections 38(2) and 39(2) of the UAPA as she professed to be an ISIS member and attempted to unite all terrorist organisations under the ISIS banner. She was sentenced to seven years in prison for each of these crimes. The NIA probe in the case revealed that she had also tried to procure a suicide jacket through accused Jahanzaib Sami.
Nabeel Siddick Khatri has been pronounced responsible and faces sentences of 15, 8 and 8 years, respectively, for giving Jahanzaib Sami money to buy weapons and carrying out pre-emptive bombings to advance ISIS ideology in collusion with Jahanzaib Sami. If he does not pay the penalty imposed under Section 17 of the UAP Act, he will be sentenced to an additional two years in jail or an amount of Rs. 2.5 lakh.
In addition to the aforementioned individuals, Abdur Rahman, also known as Dr Brave, was arrested in August 2020 following an additional probe. He is still on trial. An MBBS student from Bengaluru, he travelled to Syria in December 2013 after being radicalised by the other accused individuals. He had participated in numerous ISIS terrorist operations in Syria and had acquired knowledge on how to create both laser-guided anti-tank missile software for ISIS and a medical application for treating ISIS terrorists.
The NIA filed a charge sheet in this matter under the number RC-11/2020/NIA/DLI on March 20, 2020, and a supplemental charge sheet on January 12, 2021.
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