Karnataka youth Abid Khan found guilty for being ISIS member

A special NIA Court in Shimla has held Bengaluru youth Abid Khan guilty under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The matter has now been fixed for pronouncement of judgement or quantum of punishment on July 21.

This case was initially registered as FIR under section 18 and 20 of UA (P) Act and section 419 IPC at Police Station Banjar, Kullu and accused Abid Khan was arrested.

Later it was re-registered at the Police Station NIA headquarters, New Delhi as per the orders of the Ministry of Home Affairs and Central Government.

The charge-sheeted accused Abid Khan, 23 years, a resident of Bengaluru, Karnataka was found closely associated with four arrested accused persons in ISIS case.

He got converted to Christianity after the arrest of aforesaid four accused persons by the NIA in January, 2016, to evade his arrest.

After obtaining passport in March, 2016, he went to Colombo, Srilanka for about one month. Thereafter, accused Abid Khan took shelter in a Church, at Kullu, Himachal Pradesh. During this period he remained in contact with his handlers through various social media platforms.

Abid Khan was found to be a member of a newly formed organisation, "Junood-Ul-Khilafa-Fil-Hind" which was working to further the ideology of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), an international proscribed Jihadi terrorist organisation with a motive to establish caliphate by indulging in terrorist activities across different countries in the world including India.

After the completion of investigation, the NIA had filed a charge-sheet in the Special NIA Court, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, in this case on June 12, against Abid Khan under section 120B, 201 of the IPC and sections 18, 18B, 20, 38 and 39 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (as amended) and section 4 and 5 of the Explosive Substances Act, 1908.