BENGALURU: Five out of the nine accused in the Islamic State (ISIS) conspiracy case of Shivamogga district had been "tasked by the foreign-based ISIS handler to pursue robotics courses, to pick up skills to carry terrorist attacks in the future to further IS agenda for India," stated the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in its first supplementary chargesheet against nine accused in the case, which was submitted on Friday.
In an official release on Saturday, the NIA stated that the "accused had conducted a trial IED blast in Shivamogga, besides conducting reconnaissance of multiple places and indulging in the arson of properties and vehicles to spread terror and scare among the people, as part of an ISIS conspiracy, to carry out incidents of terror and violence in India and wage a war against India.
"The accused, who have been charge-sheeted under UA(P) Act 1967, IPC and KS Prevention of Destruction and Loss of Property Act, 1981, have been identified as Mohamed Shariq (25), Maaz Muneer Ahmed (23), Syed Yasin (22), Reeshaan Thajuddin Sheikh (22), Huzair Farhan Baig (22), Mazin Abdul Rahman (22), Nadeem Ahmed K A (22), Zabiulla (32) and Nadeem Faizal N (27). All of them belong to Karnataka. Maaz and Yasin were earlier chargesheeted in March this year, and have now been charged with other offences.
Maaz, Yasin, Thajuddin Sheikh, Abdul Rahman and Nadeem are mechanical and electrical engineering students. "They were tasked by their foreign ISIS handler to pursue robotics courses and pick up skills to carry out terrorist attacks in India," the NIA stated in the charge sheet.
"The investigations have revealed that Shariq, Maaz and Yasin had hatched a criminal conspiracy, in connivance with IS operatives based abroad, to promote terror and violence in the direction of IS, which is a banned terrorist outfit, in the region.
The trio had actively radicalised and recruited the co-accused with the intention to disturb the national security, unity and sovereignty of the country. Their online handler had funded the accused through cryptocurrencies, as per the NIA investigations in the case (RC-46/2022/NIA/DLI)," the NIA further mentioned in the legal document.
The case was initially registered by the Shivamogga rural police on September 19 last year and was later taken over and re-registered by the NIA on November 15.