Four suspected ISIS operatives sent to NIA custody till Feb 17

New Delhi: Four suspected ISIS operatives, arrested from different parts of the country for allegedly recruiting and financing people to join the terror outfit, were sent to NIA's custody till February 17 by a Delhi court on Friday.

The four arrested accused -- Mohammed Nafees Khan, Najmul Huda, Mudabbir Mushtaq Shaikh and Muhammed Abdul Ahad – were produced before the court where the NIA sought extension of their custody for seven more days alleging they were involved in the conspiracy along with their ISIS handlers.

According to the sources, during in-camera proceedings, National Investigation Agency (NIA) said that incriminating materials and US dollars, Saudi Riyals and Indian currency were recovered from the residential premises of Nafees.

Sources said that regarding Mudabbir, the NIA alleged that Rs 1,95,000 was recovered from his possession and during the interrogation, he disclosed that he had received Rs five lakh from a foreign-based source.

"He (Mudabbir) has utilised the remaining amount to enhance ISIS activities in India. In this regard, verification is required to be conducted in his presence," NIA said in its remand application filed before District Judge Amar Nath.

"NIA has recovered voluminous incriminating electronic records from the mobile/laptops of the accused persons. It is essential to cross-check the version of accused in respect of incriminating electronic records recovered.

"They have disclosed many facts about their involvement in the instant case about recruiting and financing persons. The verification of the facts is under process," it said.

Regarding electronic articles allegedly seized from the accused and their family members, the NIA said that they have been sent for forensic examination and they were analysing the mirror image of digital contents received by them.

Advocate M S Khan, who appeared for some of the accused, opposed the NIA's plea saying his clients have already been interrogated at length by the agency.

The court, after hearing the submissions, remanded these four accused to five days NIA's custody.

Besides them, seven other arrested accused were produced before the court after expiry of their NIA's custody and the agency requested the court to sent them to judicial custody as the probe in the case was going on. The court remanded them to judicial custody.

While seeking extension of custodial interrogation of the four accused, the NIA told the court that some of the suspects and witnesses were yet to be examined and confronted face-to-face with these accused.

It also placed before the court in a sealed cover the list of suspects and witnesses who are likely to be examined in the presence of these four accused.

NIA claimed that during the custodial interrogation, the accused have disclosed many facts about their involvement in the case and on recruiting and financing those willing to join the "Caliphate of ISIS" in Syria.

It said these accused had extensively used internet and social networking sites to identify, facilitate recruitment, training and promote the activities and ideology of the Middle East based terror outfit.

The seven accused who were sent to judicial custody are -- Mohd Aleem, Mohd Obaidullah Khan, Asif Ali, Suhail Ahmed, Mohd Shareef Moinuddin Khan, Syed Mujahid and Mohd Hussain Khan.

Four other co-accused -- Mohd Afzal, Imran, Abu Anas and Nasser Packeer -- were earlier sent to judicial custody.

The NIA had earlier informed the court that the accused were arrested for allegedly planning to carry out attacks ahead of the Republic Day. They were arrested under several sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the IPC.

A case was registered by NIA on December 9, 2015 against unknown and unidentified persons involved in the activities of ISIS in India and Asian Powers in Peace with India.