BENGALURU: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) Special Court, Bengaluru, on Monday sentenced Bangladeshi national Jahidul Islam alias Kausar to seven years of rigorous imprisonment (RI) in a series of cases relating to promotion of the activities of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh India (JMB-India).
Jahidul has also been fined Rs 57,000 in cases connected with offences of dacoity, conspiracy and raising funds, as well as procurement of ammunition. With this, a total of 11 accused have been convicted in these cases.
The initial case was registered by Bengaluru City Police in June 2019, based on information generated by NIA during an investigation of the Burdwan blast case of the agency’s Kolkata branch office. NIA subsequently registered the case and initiated a probe, along with the connected dacoity cases.
As per NIA investigations, Jahidul, the JMB Amir of India, along with absconding JMB head Salauddin Salehin had illegally crossed over into India in 2014, after escaping the custody of Bangladesh police in connection with the 2005 serial blasts there. While in hiding, he and his associates were involved in the October 2014 Burdwan blast case.
After the blast, Jahidul and his aides fled to Bengaluru, where he radicalised and recruited gullible Muslim youth from West Bengal and Assam to further anti-India activities of JMB. The accused and his associates had also carried out the blast in Bodh Gaya in January 2018.
NIA investigations had further revealed that the accused and his associates had also conspired to raise funds through dacoity to further the activities of JMB. In 2018, they had committed four dacoities in Bengaluru as part of this agenda, and used the looted money to procure ammunition, and arrange hideouts and training to carry out terror activities.