The National Investigation Agency on Thursday filed a chargesheet against six men suspected of recruiting and raising funds for the terrorist organisation Islamic State in Maharashtra.
They have been chargesheeted before the National Investigation Agency Special Court in Mumbai under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Indian Penal Code.
The six have been identified as: Tabish Nasser Siddiqui from Mumbai, Zulfikar Ali Barodawala, Sharjeel Shaikh and Aakif Ateeque Nachan from Borivali-Padgha, and Zubair Noor Mohammad Shaikh and Dr Adnanali Sarkar from Pune.
Two of the accused, Barodawala and Nachan, had previously been chargesheeted in the Pune Islamic State module case for allegedly fabricating improvised explosive devices for triggering blasts, the counter-terrorism law enforcement agency said.
“They are all members of the proscribed ISIS [Islamic State of Iraq and Syria] outfit and had hatched a conspiracy to further the terrorist activities of the organisation, with the intention to strike fear and terror among people and threaten the security of India, its secular ethos and culture and the democratic system of governance,” the agency said in a statement.
The six men were arrested in July when the central agency conducted several raids in Maharashtra. The investigation exposed a “complex network of individuals committed to propagating the extremist and violent” ideology of Islamic State in India, the National Investigation Agency said.
The agency said that it found the accused in possession of incriminating material related to migration to Syria, propaganda magazines such as Voice of Hind and Voice of Khurasan, published by the terror organisation.
This comes after the National Investigation Agency had earlier this month arrested 15 suspected operatives of Islamic State during a crackdown across Maharashtra and Karnataka. The 15 persons have been accused of promoting terror and terror-related acts and activities of the proscribed organisation.
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