BHUBANESWAR: Delhi Police made startling revelations on Saturday that 22-year-old Sheikh Imran, arrested a week ago from Bhubaneswar for his alleged links with a radical group, was targeting important religious places and sensitive locations in the country and had promised to arrange arms training for the module’s members in Odisha.
Imran visited various sensitive installations, including the Red Fort in Delhi in December 2025, and posted its photo with a black flag atop it to radicalise others. He had also asked other members to send money for the same.
He was among the four accused, including a welder, a Class XII student and a plumber, who were allegedly radicalised and believed in the emergence of an army (lashkar) from Khurasan bearing black flags to establish a caliphate in the Indian subcontinent and beyond, officials said.
According to police, the four were preparing to join the lashkar to participate in Ghazwa-e-Hind, besides radicalising others. Materials for the preparation of an IED were recovered.
The three other accused have been identified as Mosaib Ahmad and Mohammad Hammad, residents of Maharashtra, and Mohammad Sohail, a resident of Bihar.
Police investigation revealed that Imran was born into a lower-class family in Bhubaneswar and studied till Class X. He then worked as a security guard and later as a delivery boy. In 2024, he started listening to lectures by Pakistani clerics and scholars like Tariq Jamil and Israr Ahmed. He gradually developed radical beliefs and came in contact with his associates, Hammad and Ahmad, through social media platforms.
Together, they created a closed group where discussions centred around jihad, khilafat and Ghazwa-e-Hind. Investigation revealed that Imran discussed targeting the Ram Mandir, Parliament building and military installations in the country.
Imran visited New Delhi in December 2025 and carried out a recce of the Red Fort and India Gate. He promised members of the group to arrange arms and physical training, including horse riding, in Odisha and asked them to contribute funds for the same, said Delhi Police Special Cell DCP Praveen Kumar Tripathi.
Imran also posted a morphed photo of the Red Fort with a black flag atop it to radicalise other members in their closed social media group. Delhi Police said Imran and three others were administrators and members of various closed groups on encrypted social media platforms.
They were engaged in radicalising and recruiting others to establish an Islamic state through jihad. Two members of the module were in the process of collecting locally sourced material to prepare a remote-controlled IED, which could have been used for a terrorist attack at an opportune time, officials added.
Meanwhile, the Crime Branch’s Special Task Force (STF) has intensified its investigation to ascertain Imran’s activities in recent years. “Prima facie, it appears Imran was honey-trapped into joining the radical group, purportedly through a woman on social media. The social media account appears to be fake, and more details have been sought from the authorities concerned,” said CB IG Sarthak Sarangi.
Imran’s three close friends have been identified, and they are being questioned to gather details about his past activities. “We will also seek his interrogation report from Delhi Police to carry out our further investigation,” Sarangi added.