Bengaluru jail terror plot: NIA court sentences 7 in radicalisation case
Bengaluru: A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Wednesday sentenced seven accused persons including T Naseer to 7 years imprisonment, in connection with the 2023 Bengaluru prison radicalisation case.
Among others who got convicted and sentenced to seven years rigorous imprisonment included Syed Suhail Khan, Mohammed Umar, Zahid Tabrez, Syed Mudassir Pasha, Mohammed Faisal Rabbani and Salman Khan. They were also imposed a fine of Rs 48,000. The accused persons had pleaded guilty of the charges that were filed by the NIA.
The case relates to a Lashkar-e-Tayiba linked terror conspiracy that was hatched inside the Parapanna Agrahara Central Jail in Bengaluru by T Naseer. The conspiracy involved identification, recruitment, training, conversion and radicalisation of gullible youth lodged in the prison to execute terror activities in India. The case was initially registered by the Bengaluru Central Crime Branch (CCB) in July 2023, following the seizure of arms, ammunition and digital devices from habitual offenders.
The accused persons had hatched a plan to carry out terror attacks in Bengaluru city. The NIA said that these persons were furthering an anti-India agenda of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba. The case was taken over by NIA following a larger conspiracy came to light. The accused persons were also trying to facilitate the escape of Naseer from jail. He is a life convict and had been sentenced in connection with multiple terror cases.
The plan was to facilitate his release while he would visit a court in Bengaluru, the NIA learnt. The NIA chargesheeted 11 persons and an absconder identified as Junaid Ahmed. Of these accused, a person named Salman Khan was arrested after he was extradited from the Republic of Rwanda. The NIA said that efforts are on to trace the absconding accused.
Officials say that the modus operandi that was being followed in this case resembled what one got to witness in the prisons of Jammu and Kashmir.
In 2011, a team of the National Investigation Agency had detained two persons from the Bengaluru central jail for making calls to Pakistan. In October 2011, the Kerala police had put out a report stating that inmates were making calls to Pakistan and the investigators believed that this was a case relating to terrorism.
The radicalisation of individuals has been flagged by the Ministry of Home Affairs in a report dated January 2023. The Home Ministry had told all the Director General of Prisons to focus on organising special de-radicalisation sessions in all jails.
“The jail administration has to ensure that inmates inclined towards propagating the ideology of radicalisation and those who have the propensity and potential to negatively influence other inmates are housed in separate enclosures away from other inmates,” a letter by Deputy Secretary Arun Sobti had read.
