An NIA Special Court at Rouse Avenue on Monday sentenced 4 operatives of the proscribed terrorist organisation Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in connection with the ‘Voice of Hind’ terror conspiracy case. This case was registered by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2021.
The accused pleaded guilty, and the Court found them guilty of criminal conspiracy and various offences under the anti-terror law UAPA and the Indian Penal Code (IPC) relating to dissemination and propagation of ISIS material, radicalisation and recruitment of youth, and furthering the activities of the proscribed terrorist organisation. ISIS terrorists operating from various conflict zones, along with ISIS cadres in India, created a network using pseudo online identities for dissemination of ISIS-related propaganda. It was alleged that the organised online campaign was supplemented by on-ground terror financing activities. Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Rahul Tyagi alongwith Advocate Jatin Khatri and Amit Rohila appeared for the NIA.
the 4 convicts pleaded guilty to the charges after around 5 years of custody While framing of charges. Thereafter, they were convicted on September 17 and sentenced on September 28. After the conviction and sentence of 4 accsued who pleaded guilty, the trial against the remaining accused persons is pending. Special NIA Judge Vikas Dhull sentenced Umar Nisar alias Qasim Khurasani, Rameez Ahmad Lone and Tanveer Ahmad Bhat to 6 years of rigorous imprisonment each for offences under sections 17, 18, 18A, 18B, 19, 38, 39 of UAPA and sections 153A and 153B of IPC. Convict Umar Nisar has also been sentenced to 6 years for the offences under section 120 B read with sections 18 and 18A of UAPA. 18 (Conspiracy), 38 of UAPA read with 120 B, 39 of UAPA read with 120B of IPC and section 153 A read with section 120 B of IPC While Afshan Parvaiz Jarabi has been sentenced to 5 years of rigorous imprisonment for the offences under section 18 (Preparation) of UAPA read with section 120B of IPC. The court has imposed fines of Rs 36,000 upon Umar Nisar, Rs 31,000 upon Rameez Ahmad Lone, Rs 23,000 upon Tanveer Ahmad Bhat and Rs 9,000 upon Afshan Parvaiz Jarabi, respectively. The Court found the specific involvement of the 4 convicts in furthering the activities of ISIS. NIA had filed the chargesheet and 4 supplementary chargesheets against a total of 8 accused persons.
The NIA said that the case relates to a conspiracy hatched by ISIS to radicalise and recruit impressionable youth in India to wage violent jihad against the Indian state. NIA had stated that the investigation revealed the involvement of cyber entities and their associates in the content creation, editing, publication and dissemination of the India-centric ISIS propaganda magazine “Sawt-al-Hind (The Voice of Hind)” through online platforms. The network was also involved in motivating and facilitating Indians for so-called “hijrat” (migration) to ISIS conflict theatres in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and other areas. The NIA said that during the investigation, voluminous incriminating documents and digital material, including PDFs of “Voice of Hind”, posters of slain terrorists, radicalising literature, web links to ISIS propaganda, an ISIS-flag T-shirt, chats and audio recordings relating to weapon procurement, media, ideological, psychological warfare material, and ISIS banners and flags were recovered and seized by the NIA. The investigation agency has said that it has established the involvement of the accused persons in the activities of the ISIS ‘Voice of Hind’ module and their role in furthering the objectives of the proscribed terrorist organisation through online activities. (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
