Mumbai court sends 5 linked in ISIS conspiracy to NIA custody

A special court in Mumbai on Wednesday sent five men linked to an alleged ISIS conspiracy to the custody of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) till August 14. The NIA had taken over the case from the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in Pune this week.

The NIA, through its special public prosecutor Sundeep Sadawarte, claimed that two of the accused, Mohammed Imran Khan and Mohammed Yunus Saki, are based in Madhya Pradesh and are part of a frontal organisation of ISIS named Al-Sufa. It is also suspected that they had trained others, the NIA alleged. It was also submitted that they are also named in a case registered by the agency’s Delhi unit, alleging that the other accused too are part of the conspiracy. Their further custody was sought on the grounds that they planned ahead, and to find out the source of their funding and the identity of their foreign handler.

The agency said that it was also probing the roles of the other three accused Qadir Pathan, SN Kazi and Zulfikar Ali Barodawala on whether they provided shelter to the other two accused and received training.

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Tahera Qureshi, defence lawyer for Barodawala, said that he was already probed in a case filed by the NIA in Mumbai previously and hence the remand for their further custody was not justified. The NIA prosecutor said that the two cases were different and the offences were not connected.

The NIA has arrested five men in connection with another case linked to ISIS.