BENGALURU: A special court in the city for cases registered by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday sentenced two youths to seven years’ simple imprisonment for their involvement in terror activities.
Accused are Akthar Hussain, resident of Tilaknagar and from Theltikar village in Assam and Abdul Alim Mondal alias Mohammed Juba from South 24 Paraganas, West Bengal.Juba was residing in Salem when police arrested him on July 27, 2022. Earlier on July 24 that year, cops had arrested Akthar Hussain. Both are in their 20s. After the two pleaded guilty, the NIA special court on Monday convicted them and announced the punishment on Wednesday.
The two were held guilty under Indian Penal Code sections 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 153B ( Punishment for publishing statements that promote disharmony or hatred between different religious, racial, language, or regional groups) and sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
According to the charge sheet, the convicts were part of Telegram groups identified as ‘Eagle of Kohrasun’, ‘Hinder eagle’ and ‘Kashmir Hizrat Sathi’ floated to radicalise Muslim youths. Hussain was planning to leave for Kashmir from Bengaluru and is having link with proscribed terrorist organization Al-Qaeda. Further, the telegram chats of them contained video of atrocities on Muslims and included many provocative chats, with intention to provoke and radicalise youths to wage war against India by joining hands with Al-Qaeda and establishing Shariya Law in India.
“Akthar conspired and provoked many youths to fight in the name of religion. He had planned to send youths to Kashmir and Khorasan province of Afghanistan to undergo terror training. These youths were taught that Muslims in Kashmir were subjected to harassment and they should wage war against India to stop it. Further, Akhtar told us that Juba had agreed to join him in the fight. The Telegram group of Juba was handled by individuals living in Bangladesh. Juba’s mobile contained provocative chats in Bengali language. During interrogation, the two confessed to being the members of Kashmir Hizarath Saathi Telegram group, handled by four Bangladeshi nationals. These four Bangla nationals were preparing to visit Pakistan for getting trained,” the charge-sheet read.
Special public prosecutor P Prasanna Kumar told TOI “In this case, the chats between the then-accused persons (Hussain and Juba) played vital role in establishing the circumstantial as well as scientific evidence against them. Though they had deleted the provocative conversations, they were retrieved,” Kumar said.
Hussain was fined Rs 41,000 while Juba Rs 51,000.
Accused are Akthar Hussain, resident of Tilaknagar and from Theltikar village in Assam and Abdul Alim Mondal alias Mohammed Juba from South 24 Paraganas, West Bengal.Juba was residing in Salem when police arrested him on July 27, 2022. Earlier on July 24 that year, cops had arrested Akthar Hussain. Both are in their 20s. After the two pleaded guilty, the NIA special court on Monday convicted them and announced the punishment on Wednesday.
The two were held guilty under Indian Penal Code sections 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 153B ( Punishment for publishing statements that promote disharmony or hatred between different religious, racial, language, or regional groups) and sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
According to the charge sheet, the convicts were part of Telegram groups identified as ‘Eagle of Kohrasun’, ‘Hinder eagle’ and ‘Kashmir Hizrat Sathi’ floated to radicalise Muslim youths. Hussain was planning to leave for Kashmir from Bengaluru and is having link with proscribed terrorist organization Al-Qaeda. Further, the telegram chats of them contained video of atrocities on Muslims and included many provocative chats, with intention to provoke and radicalise youths to wage war against India by joining hands with Al-Qaeda and establishing Shariya Law in India.
“Akthar conspired and provoked many youths to fight in the name of religion. He had planned to send youths to Kashmir and Khorasan province of Afghanistan to undergo terror training. These youths were taught that Muslims in Kashmir were subjected to harassment and they should wage war against India to stop it. Further, Akhtar told us that Juba had agreed to join him in the fight. The Telegram group of Juba was handled by individuals living in Bangladesh. Juba’s mobile contained provocative chats in Bengali language. During interrogation, the two confessed to being the members of Kashmir Hizarath Saathi Telegram group, handled by four Bangladeshi nationals. These four Bangla nationals were preparing to visit Pakistan for getting trained,” the charge-sheet read.
Special public prosecutor P Prasanna Kumar told TOI “In this case, the chats between the then-accused persons (Hussain and Juba) played vital role in establishing the circumstantial as well as scientific evidence against them. Though they had deleted the provocative conversations, they were retrieved,” Kumar said.
Hussain was fined Rs 41,000 while Juba Rs 51,000.