Hyderabad: The National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) probe into the ISIS module involving terror suspects from Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Tamil Nadu has turned into a multi-country probe with the agency issuing Mutual Assistance Legal Treaty (MALT) requests and letters rogatory (letter of request from a court to a foreign court) to the United States, United Arab Emirates and Sudan.
NIA investigations revealed that accused Mohamed Naser, son of Packeer Mohammed of Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu, who was chargesheeted first was arrested in Sudan and deported to India. That led to the busting of the terror module involving Hyderabadi suspects.
The NIA stated that during the investigation two requests under MALT were forwarded to the USA and UAE, a letter rogatory to Sudan for collection of documentary as well as digital evidence against the accused.
“Mohammed Naser had created multiple email, Twitter and Telegram IDs at different times for the purpose of clandestine communications with persons who could help him get into Syria and join the ISIS,” the NIA chargesheet said.
“In this regard a request under MALT has been sent to the US to obtain relevant contents from email and chat IDs used by terror suspects,” the chargesheet said.
NIA investigations found that Naser was in touch with Karen Hamidian of the Philippines and Fathima Arenitna and Mad Mullah alias Abu Hatim, outside the country.
The NIA found that before his arrest Naser was interacting with people identified as Yusha Kashmiri, Siraj Kashmiri alias Sirajuddin, Dawlah Indaziyah of Nigeria, Abu Hamza al Hind of Australia, Abu Abdulla Al Britani and Aadhil apart from Hamidan and Fatima.
During the course of the investigation, the Computer Emergency Response Team of New Delhi retrieved most of the digital data from the electronic devices seized from Naser.
The data retrieved contained phone numbers, e-mails, pictures and videos connected to jihadi activities, call logs and pdf files with jihadi literature.
