The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday filed a chargesheet against five people for their alleged association with the banned Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), an affiliate of ISIS, officials said.
Those chargesheeted were Jahanzaib Sami (36) and Hina Bashir Beigh (39), both natives of Kashmir and residents of Delhi; Abdullah Basith (26), a resident of Hyderabad; and Sadiya Anwar Shaikh (20) and Nabeel Siddick Khatri (27), both residents of Pune.
The chargesheet was filed in a court in Delhi.
The accused have been chargesheeted for their affiliation with the proscribed terrorist organisation ISIS/ISKP and for conspiring to create disaffection against government, promoting enmity among different religious communities and for committing subversive activities.
They have been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
The case was initially registered by the Delhi Police's Special Cell on March 8 this year after the arrest of Jahanzaib and his wife Hina from their rented accommodation in Okhla Vihar, Jamia Nagar in Delhi.
The NIA re-registered the case on March 20 and took up the investigation.
The investigation revealed that Jahanzaib, who completed his B.Tech degree from an institution in Ferozpur in Punjab, got radicalised and inclined towards ISIS/ISKP by reading about it on the internet.
He established contact with ISIS handler Huzaifa-al-Bakistani and her father-in-law Abu Usman-Al-Kashmiri (Head of the Indian affairs of ISKP) in 2017 on a secure messaging platform.
Huzaifa-al-Bakistani further introduced him to Basith, another ISIS operative, who is already in judicial custody in Delhi's Tihar jail in connection with another NIA case (ISIS Abu Dabhi Module).
Hina, who completed her higher education from Pune, also got radicalised in 2014-15 by reading ISIS-related content on social media. Jahanzaib and Hina got married in 2017 as both supported the ideology of ISIS, according to the NIA.
Jahanzaib, Hina, Basith and Sadiya were continuously in contact with ISIS operatives based in Khorasan and Syria.
On receiving instructions from ISKP Head Usman-Al-Kashmiri, Jahanzaib and Basith prepared a magazine, titled Voice of Hind', inciting Muslims against non-Muslims and exhorting them to rise against the Government of India and join ISIS, the agency alleged.
The magazine eulogises ISIS/ISKP terrorists, including Huzaifa-al-Bakistani who was killed in July, 2019 in a drone strike in Afghanistan, and denigrates the Indian Constitution and democratic system.
Jahanzaib, Hina, Basith and Sadiya were conspiring to utilise the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests to instigate Muslims against the Indian government by coining seditious slogans and making graffiti at public places and highlighting the same on social and international media, it alleged.
They were also provoking some gullible youths to participate in anti-CAA protests actively. In case these protests failed to provoke the Muslims, they were planning for arsoning of government buildings and public property so that riots could happen and they could exploit the sentiments of Muslims, the agency alleged.
Jahanzaib, Hina, Basith and Siddick tried to make an improvised IED and were planning to carry out mass killings in crowded places to further the activities of ISIS/ISKP in India, it further alleged.
A reconnaissance was carried out by them of certain sensitive locations in Maharashtra which are frequented by foreigners.
The NIA arrested another accused Abdur Rehman from Bengaluru on August 17 this year who was in contact with Jahanzaib as part of the conspiracy to promote the activities of ISIS/ISKP and had also visited ISIS medical camp in Syria in 2014.
Investigation into the activities of Rehman and other suspects was underway.Â
