By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, Mar 2:
Seven ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) terrorists were convicted and were awarded death penalty while another terrorist was given life imprisonment in the Kanpur conspiracy case by the NIA Court, Lucknow on Tuesday.
According to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the accused had prepared and tested some improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and unsuccessfully tried to plant them at various locations in Uttar Pradesh.
Those who have been award death sentence are: Mohammad Faisal, Gaus Mohammad Khan, Mohammad Azhar, Atif Muzaffar, Mohammad Danish, Syed Mir Hussain, and Asif Iqbal Rocky. The eighth convict Mohammad Atif Irani was sentenced to life imprisonment. Another accused in the case, Mohammad Saifulla, was killed in an encounter with the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) in March 2017, NIA statement read.
They convicts were found guilty under sections 121, 121A, 122, 123 of IPC, sections 17, 18, 18A, 18B, 23, 38 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and sections 3/25/35 of the Arms Act. Pronouncing the sentences, judge VS Tripathi said that the case fell in the rarest of rare category, and therefore the convicts were entitled to the severest punishment.
These ISIS terrorists were arrested in the Kanpur conspiracy case in 2017, and they were booked under various sections of the IPC, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the Arms Act and the Explosive Substances Act. The case (No 03/2017) against the eight accused was initially registered on March 8, 2017, with ATS, Lucknow. It was re-registered by NIA on March 14,2017.
Investigations revealed that Mohammd Atif Irani and three others, identified as Mohammad Danish, Syed Meer Hasan and Mohammad Saifulla, were also responsible for fabricating the IED that was planted in the Bhopal-Ujjain passenger train, which led to the explosion on March 7, 2017, leaving 10 injured. This case is currently under trial
Breakthrough
The breakthrough in the ISIS-backed criminal conspiracy case came when the main accused, identified as Mohammad Faisal, a resident of Kanpur Nagar, was arrested for his involvement in the Madhya Pradesh train explosion of March 7, 2017. Disclosures made by him led to the arrest of two of his associates, Gauss Mohammad Khan alias Karan Khatri and Azhar Khan alias Azhar Khalifa, on March 09,2017.
After taking over the investigations, NIA arrested five more accused- Atif Muzaffar, Mohammad Danish, Asif Iqbal alias Rocky and Mohammad Atif alias Atif Iraqi, all hailing from Kanpur Nagar and Sayed Meer Hussain of district Kannouj, UP, accused in the case. A charge sheet was filed by NIA against all the eight arrested accused on August 31, 2017.
A notebook seized from their Haji Colony (Lucknow) hideout was found to contain handwritten notes about potential targets and details about bomb-making. Investigations had also led to the discovery of several photographs of the accused making IEDs and even with weapons, ammunition and ISIS flag, NIA said before the court.
One of the accused, Atif Muzaffar, had also disclosed that he had compiled information on techniques to fabricate IEDs after collecting materials from various internet sources. According to the NIA spokesperson, investigations in the case had clearly shown that the accused were terrorists of ISIS and had sworn ‘bayat’ (allegiance) to the Islamic State and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Gujarat ISIS case
In another case on Tuesday, the NIA Special Court, Gujarat, convicted two ISIS terrorists and awarded them 10 years rigorous imprisonment on charges of radicalising youth through social media, to carry out terror acts in the country in the name of ISIS. Originally the case (No 1-2017) was registered on May 20,2017 by Gujarat ATS. It was re-registered as RC-09/2017/NIA/IDLI (ISIS Rajkot case) by NIA and charge sheet was filed on August 22,2017.
