Terror accused extradited from Rwanda is second of 3 missing persons arrested in Bengaluru prison radicalisation case

Salman Khan allegedly facilitated the collection and distribution of explosives for the prison group after being radicalised and recruited in prison by T Nasir, the NIA has alleged.

“Nasir had orchestrated the radicalisation and subsequent criminal activities, including plans to facilitate his own escape en route to the court from the prison and a conspiracy to further the operations of the proscribed terrorist organisation LeT,” the NIA said Thursday.

Earlier in March this year, the Delhi Special Cell had arrested another missing suspect from a group of undertrials at the Bengaluru prison who are alleged to have been radicalised in prison by T Nasir.

Vikram Kumar alias Mohammed Usman, 24, a resident of Bengaluru was arrested on March 18 this year by the Delhi Special Cell in an alleged Inter-Services Intelligence-inspired plot to carry out attacks during the Lok Sabha polls in April-May 2024. Usman has now been identified as an accused in a 2017 murder case of a businessman in Bengaluru who was influenced by T Nasir in prison in the 2018-19 period following his incarceration for the murder in R T Nagar in 2017.

Usman who was a Hindu earlier, allegedly converted to Islam after coming in contact with T Nasir in prison. Usman was taken into custody in September this year by the NIA in the prison radicalisation case and is currently under investigation for his role in the prison group.

According to the legal records for the case being prosecuted in New Delhi by the Delhi Special Cell, Vikram Kumar alias Mohammed Usman was arrested by the cell on the basis of an FIR registered on January 8, 2024, following “credible information” of terror groups based in Pakistan planning to carry attacks at the behest of the ISI prior to the Lok Sabha polls.

“During the course of investigation, on the basis of human intelligence and secret information, name of accused Vikram surfaced that one foreign-based entity Junaid who is in touch with ISI is directing one of his sleeper cells in India i.e. Vikram,” a Delhi court observed while taking cognizance of a chargesheet filed against Usman in July this year.

The person named by the special cell as the alleged handler of Usman is incidentally Junaid Ahmed, 29, a still missing suspect in the prison radicalisation case in Bengaluru who also came under the influence of the LeT linked T Nasir while he was incarcerated between 2018-2019 for the 2017 murder of the businessman in R T Nagar along with Usman and others.

According to the court records from Delhi, Usman came in touch with several jailed terrorists including T Nasir, Munaf, Aasif Bhai and others “who inspired him to join them and they all motivated him to convert his religion and he finally converted to Muslim religion and he changed his name to Mohd Usman.”

The probe in Delhi has revealed that Junaid Ahmed, the missing link in the NIA’s prison radicalisation case in Bengaluru and the second key accused in the case after T Nasir, sent Usman Rs 80,000 through contacts in Begusarai, Bihar which Usman allegedly used on the directions of Junaid Ahmed to procure arms and ammunition from Munger in Bihar.

The Delhi Special Cell has claimed the recovery of two 9 mm pistols and 15 live cartridges following Usman’s arrest. The Delhi Special Cell also questioned T Nasir, Suhail Khan, and Khaja Moideen who are prisoners in Bengaluru and are alleged to have influenced Usman in the January 2024 case in Delhi but did not charge them.

According to the NIA’s investigations in Bengaluru, Salman Khan who was extradited from Rwanda on Thursday and Vikram alias Md Usman who was arrested by the Delhi Special Cell in March this year “arranged arms, ammunition, hand grenades, and walkie-talkies” at the behest of T Nasir and the missing Junaid Ahmed and these were hidden away.

The NIA has stated in court that on the instructions of Junaid Ahmed, the Delhi case accused Md Usman “collected parcels containing hand grenades and walkie-talkies from Ambala, Haryana, and was paid by accused No. 2, Junaid Ahmed, through a co-accused.”

Background

The NIA on Thursday secured the custody of Salman Rehman Khan, 29, who was extradited from Rwanda and is accused number eight in the prison radicalisation case from July 2023 – which was originally registered by the Bengaluru Central Crime Branch before it was taken over by the NIA in October 2023.

The NIA filed a chargesheet in the case in February this year naming eight persons as accused including the LeT-linked Tadiyandavede Nasir. The missing Junaid Ahmed is A2 (Accused Number 2) and the man arrested by the Delhi Special Cell Vikram alias Md Usman, 24, is A9 (yet to be charge-sheeted).

The LeT man Nasir who has been incarcerated since 2009 in the Bengaluru serial blasts case is alleged to have radicalised several Muslim youths in the Bengaluru central prison to take up terrorism from 2018 to 2022.

Nasir was arrested in 2009 and is among 18 members of the banned Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) convicted for seven years in 2018 by an NIA court in Kerala for being part of a terror-training camp at Vagamon in 2007.

On July 18, 2023, shortly after receiving information from a central agency, the Bengaluru Central Crime Branch (CCB) police arrested five youths with a history of crime for alleged possession of seven country-made pistols, 45 live bullets, and for allegedly planning some form of terror attack in the future after being influenced by Nasir.

Investigations of the communication and electronic devices seized from the accused revealed the transfer of funds from abroad to members of the arrested group in Bengaluru.

The initial Bengaluru probe indicated that Nasir, who had been in prison for over 13 years, radicalised a few members of a group of 20 youths who were lodged in the Bengaluru central prison between 2018 and 2019 over an attempt to murder a businessman in Bengaluru in October 2017.

The police alleged that Nasir inspired Junaid Ahmed, 29, one of the 20 youths who was arrested in 2017 – in the case of attempting to murder the businessman – to facilitate the creation of a terror module. Junaid Ahmed left the country for Dubai around 2021 and is currently absconding.