Pune Girl And Youth Among Five Persons Convicted By NIA Court For Promoting ISIS Ideology In India

Reported by Mubarak Ansari

New Delhi/Pune, 6th May 2024: The NIA Special Court, New Delhi, on Monday pronounced varying jail sentences against five persons accused in a case relating to a conspiracy by the banned Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISKP) group to promote the ideology of ISIS and spread terror through acts of violence in India.

On 8th March 2020, the Delhi Police Special Cell had arrested two accused, Jahanzaib Sami Wani and his wife Hina Bashir Beigh, from Okhla Vihar, Jamia Nagar, for their affiliation to ISKP, a part of ISIS. The duo had plans to commit subversive/anti-national activities in India. NIA had re-registered the case on 20th March 2020 and had taken up the investigation.

During investigation, NIA arrested two other persons, Sadiya Anwar Shaikh (24) of Phulenagar and Nabeel S Khatri (29) of Kondhwa, from Pune on 12th July 2020. At the time of arrest, Khatri used to run gym while Sadiya was a 2nd year student of Mass Communications and Journalism at Baramati.

Further investigations led to the arrest of Abdur Rahman @ Dr. Brave in August 2020.

Trial against Abdur Rehman @ Dr. Brave, is continuing. An MBBS student from Bangaluru, he had been radicalised by the other accused persons and had travelled to Syria in December 2013. In Syria, he had participated in various terrorist activities of ISIS, and had learnt to develop a medical application for treatment of ISIS terrorists and also a Laser Guided Anti-Tank Missile application for ISIS.

NIA had filed a chargesheet on 20th March 2020 and a supplementary chargesheet on 12th January 2021 in this case no. RC-11/2020/NIA/DLI.

In its order pronounced today, the NIA court has sentenced accused Jahanzaib Sami to varying periods of imprisonment, extending from 3 to 20 years, along with fine, for offences committed under sections 17, 18, 38 and 13 of UA(P) Act and under sections 120B and 124A under IPC. He was charged with planning to establish Caliphate in India and conspiring to carry out 100 IED blasts in a single day through out the country.

NIA investigations had revealed that the accused was also raising, receiving and providing funds through crypto currency to promote the ideology of ISIS, a banned global terror outfit. Sami was also involved in exploiting the sentiments of gullible youth to fuel the anti CAA/NRC protests.

The second accused, identified as Hina Bashir Beigh, has been sentenced to 7 years in jail each for two offences, under sections 38 and 39 of UA(P) Act. She had professed to be a member of ISIS and had helped her husband to identify like-minded  persons to carry forward the terror organisation’s nefarious agenda against India.

Abdullah Basith has been convicted under  sections 38 & 39 of UA(P)A, and has been sentenced to the period already undergone by him. As per NIA investigations, a self-professed ISIS member, he had helped accused Jahanzaib Sami in preparing the ISIS Magazine “Voice of Hind”.

Accused Sadiya Anwar Shaikh has also been convicted to 7 years each for offences under sections 38(2) & 39(2) of UA(P) Act, as she had professed to be member of ISIS and had tried to bring all the terrorist groups under the banner of ISIS. She had also tried to procure a suicide jacket through accused Jahanzaib Sami, the NIA probe in the case has revealed.

Khatri has been convicted under sections 17, 38 & 39 of UA(P)A to 15, 8 and 8 years respectively, for providing funds to accused Jahanzaib Sami for procurement of weapons. He also conducted preparatory blasts in connivance with Jahanzaib Sami to further the ideology of ISIS. He will have to pay Rs. 2.5 lakh fine, or serve an additional 2 years in jail, in case of failure to pay the fine imposed under section 17 of UA(P) Act.

It has also been revealed that Sadiya Sheikh was in contact with ISIS recruiters through social media since 2015. She was planning to execute a terrorist attack in Jammu & Kashmir and was detained by J&K Police in 2018, NIA stated. 

On January 26, 2018, Sadiya was arrested in Jammu and Kashmir on suspicion of planning attack. However, she was released later when no concrete evidence was found. After returning to Pune, she had addressed media at a press conference and said that she had gone to take admission in a nursing college there. 

According to Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), Pune unit, and Pune city police officials, Sadiya had been counselled since she was 16-year-old and wanted to join ISIS. In December 2015, following inputs that some youth from Pune were getting attracted to the Islamic State’s propaganda on social media, the Pune unit of the ATS had identified Sadiya, who was 16 at the time, as one of them. She was found to be “mentally prepared” to go to Syria to join the Islamic State after being influenced by online operatives of the terrorist organisation. The ATS had then provided counselling to her. 

Speaking about 2015 ISIS connection, Sadiya had earlier said, “I had got influenced by Islamic State (IS) ideology. I used to chat online with some groups and people on Facebook. ATS came to know about it arranged a deradicalisation session with a local Maulana. They were successful… I continued my college, I was in Class 12 at the time.”