NIA court frames charges against six alleged ISIS members

A court in Kerala has framed charges against six youths, alleged to be ISIS terrorists, for trying to carry out terrorist activities in parts of southern India, according to an official statement issued Tuesday.

A case was registered suo-motu by the National Investigation Agency on October 1, 2016 based on information regarding activities of some youths, who had the intention of furthering the objectives of the proscribed terrorist group in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the NIA said in a statement.

The youths "had got together and formed an ISIS terror module named Ansarul Khilafa-KL over social media platforms and had made preparations to carry out terrorist attacks against prominent persons, including judges, police officers and politicians, and also against foreign nationals and rationalists," it said.

The probe agency arrested six members of the terror module on October 2, 2016, when they had organised a meeting at Kanakamala in Kannur district of Kerala, it said.

Subsequently, another member of the module was arrested on February 15 last year, after his deportation from the UAE.

In this case, on October 5, 2016, the NIA also arrested ISIS operative Subahani Haja Moideen alias Abu Jasmine, who had travelled to Iraq/Syria in April 2015 and fought for ISIS, the NIA said.

Moideen returned to India in September 2015 and continued his activities in support of ISIS in India, it said.

The NIA filed chargesheet against Manseed Muhmood, Swalih Mohammed, Rashid Ali, Ramshad N K, Safvan, Jasim N K, and Shajeer Mangalassery under various sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Indian Penal Code on March 29, 2017.

A separate chargesheet was filed against Moideen under these Acts on the same day. A supplementary chargesheet was filed against accused Moinudheen P K under the UAPA and the IPC in August last year.

Now the special NIA court in Ernakulam on Monday framed charges against Manseed Muhmood, Swalih Mohammed, Rashid Ali, Ramshad N K, Safvan and Jasim N K, the NIA said.

The case has been posted to Thursday for framing of charges against Subahani Haja Moideen and for finalizing the trial schedule, it said.

Regular trial of the case is expected to commence from September 26, 2018, the probe agency said.