KOCHI: The NIA Court on Friday granted bail to two Maharashtra natives, who were associated with televangelist Zakir Naik’s Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) and accused of attempting to radicalise a youth from Kochi and instigating him to join Islamic State (IS).
Arshid Qureshi alias Arshi, the guest relation officer with IRF, and Rizwan Khan, a maulavi from Kalyan, were granted bail after NIA failed to file a charge-sheet in the case and the duo completed 180 days in judicial custody.
The NIA Court ordered the two to execute a bond of Rs 2 lakh each with two solvent sureties. They are serving judicial custody in another NIA case related to radicalising a Keralite in Mumbai.
Once they complete the judicial custody in the case, they have been asked to appear before the NIA unit in Kochi. They have also been asked to surrender their passports and not to influence any witnesses in the case.
The duo is accused of forcing Palarivattom-native Ebin and his sister to convert to Islam and instigating the former to join IS. They were arrested by Kerala police with the assistance of Mumbai Police in July 2016.