MUMBAI: A special NIA court on Saturday remanded Islamic State (IS) renegade Areeb Majeed, hailing from Kalyan near here, in NIA custody till December 8. Majeed had been arrested on Friday.
NIA prosecutor Geeta Godambe argued that the anti-terror agency needed to elicit information from Areeb regarding the travel agent, who had sent him and three of his friends to Iraq under the pretext of pilgrimage.
The NIA also wanted to get the details of the fund raiser for Areeb’s Iraq tour and the people, who had radicalised him to take the extreme step. Areeb told the court that he could not hire a lawyer, as he was in the NIA custody. When the judge asked whether he had any complaints against the agency, he, however, replied in the negative.
An NIA team had on Friday brought Areeb back to the city from Turkey. The NIA has filed a case against him and the IS for waging a war against Asian countries, which foster political ties with India.
According to a source in the city Police, Areeb returned to home to avail better medical treatment, after he was injured in an accidental firing. He had joined the IS to fight against the enemies of Islam. However, the IS bosses did not give him weapons, but made him clean the premises. “The IS had trained him for 15 days in handling weapons, but never gave him any target,” a source said.
Areeb, 23, has told his interrogators that he had sustained bullet injuries in friendly fire from some IS “soldiers”. After the incident, he was shifted to a makeshift hospital in the city of Al Raqqa, which was demolished two weeks ago in the Syrian air strikes. Areeb, who survived the attack, then fled to Turkey.
“Areeb does not have any remorse about his actions. His health condition isn’t good. He is suffering from some illness, besides the bullet injuries. That is why he contacted his parents and expressed his desire to return,” the source added.
The NIA is likely to run psychological tests on Areeb to find out what had prompted him to drop out of his engineering course and join the IS. During questioning, he told the interrogators that it was through Internet that he had come to know about the IS. The security agencies, however, are not willing to take the claim at its facevalue. The NIA is also expected to question him about his three friends – Fahad Sheikh, Saheem Tanki and Aman Tandel – who had left for Iraq to join the IS.