BENGALURU: A special court for National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Bengaluru on Monday convicted and sentenced Arafath Ali to six years of rigorous imprisonment (RI) in connection with the 2022 Shivamogga ISIS terror conspiracy case.
This is the third conviction in the case. The court had earlier, in November 2025, sentenced two other accused to six years of RI in the same case.
According to an NIA, Arafath Ali, an alleged active member of the banned Islamic State (ISIS), was involved in a conspiracy to propagate the group’s violent ideology in India. Investigations revealed that he played a key role in radicalising and recruiting vulnerable youth into the Shivamogga terror module.
The agency further found that Arafath had instigated co-accused to inscribe inflammatory graffiti in Mangaluru in support of ISIS and other terror outfits, including Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), with the intent to incite communal disharmony and unrest.
Arafath had fled India in January 2020 to evade arrest in a separate terror case and was later arrested by the NIA upon his arrival at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi in September 2023. The probe also revealed that he was in contact with an online ISIS handler and acted as a funding conduit for the module by receiving terror funds through cryptocurrency and distributing them among other accused.
The case was initially registered by Karnataka Police in September 2022. While two accused were arrested by the state police, the NIA later took over the investigation and arrested 10 more, filing charges against all 12 accused.