A special court has extended by a month the period of NIA's investigation against 14 suspected ISIS operatives after the agency said the larger conspiracy of the outfit in India and abroad, including recruitment of resident and non-resident Indians, was yet to be ascertained.
According to court sources, during an in-camera hearing, District Judge Amar Nath allowed the National Investigation Agency's (NIA) plea seeking extension of the probe period in the case beyond 90 days.
Sources said the court extended the period of probe against these 14 arrested accused till May 18. It also extended the judicial custody of these accused by one month.
They said the NIA told the court that probe into the case was spread in different parts of the country and abroad for which they required more time to complete the investigation.
"During the course of investigation, larger conspiracy of IS activities in India and abroad including recruitment of resident and non-resident Indians by the IS is yet to be ascertained," the NIA said.
Sources said that in the plea, the agency stated that they were awaiting the forensic results of the articles, including external hard disks, mobile phones and SIM cards, which were recovered from the possession of the accused.
The 14 accused whose period of investigation was extended are -- Mohd Aleem, Mohd Obaidullah Khan, Nafees Khan, Mohd Shareef Moinuddin Khan, Asif Ali, Najmul Huda, Mudabbir Mushtaq Shaikh, Mohd Abdul Ahad, Suhail Ahmed, Syed Mujahid, Mohd Hussain Khan, Mohd Afzal, Imran and Abu Anas.
They were arrested from different parts of the country for allegedly recruiting and financing people to join the Middle Eastern terror group.
The NIA had earlier told the court that the accused have disclosed during their interrogation "their involvement in this case about recruiting and financing persons willing to join the Caliphate of ISIS at Syria".
They were arrested under several sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and IPC. A case was registered by NIA on December 9, 2015 against unknown and unidentified persons involved in the activities of Islamic State (IS) in India and Asian Powers in Peace with India.
The NIA report said that in furtherance of the
conspiracy, the accused persons had created multiple email IDs, used multiple mobile numbers obtained from their associates from different countries, formed various online forums and groups on Facebook, Whatsapp, Kik, VKontakte, Viber and Skype, using internet and invited and associated like- minded persons, residents of different countries.
"The accused had formed a terrorist gang and acted as a frontal group of the ISIS and incited, motivated, invited and facilitated people of different nationalities to leave their respective countries and travel to Syria to join, support and further activities of the ISIS," it said.
The agency said the accused persons were actively involved in perpetuating, promoting and propagating ideologies and terrorist activities of the ISIS.
"They had voluntarily advocated and professed to be the supporters and members of the ISIS and actively supported, invited support from others, propagated and promoted unlawful activities and terrorists activities of the ISIS by exhorting, inciting, luring and influencing others to become members of this organization by disseminating incriminating contents including sharing comments, pages, videos, images, literature and openly endorsing, justifying and glorifying the terrorist acts of the ISIS," the NIA had claimed.
"They had also raised, collected and received funds in the UAE and transferred it to their associates in India, Philippines and Tunisia to facilitate their travel to Syria to join ISIS," the agency said.
