On the basis of the National Investigation Agency chargesheet, a special court in Lucknow has convicted eight men in a case of conspiring and planning terrorist acts to wage war against the Government of India.
The men had been arrested in the Kanpur conspiracy case in 2017, under various sections of the IPC, the UA(P), the Arms Act and the Explosive Substances Act. The quantum of punishment in the case will be pronounced by the NIA court on Monday.
NIA investigations had earlier revealed that the accused had prepared and tested some improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and had unsuccessfully tried to plant them at various locations in Uttar Pradesh.
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 as well as with weapons, ammunition and ISIS flag. The group had reportedly collected illegal weapons and explosives from various places.
One of the accused, Atif Muzaffar, had also admitted during his examination that he had compiled information on techniques to fabricate an IED after collecting materials from various sources on the internet.
Investigation had revealed that Atif and three others, identified as Md Danish, Syed Meer Hasan and Md Saifulla, had been responsible for fabricating the IED that was planted in the Bhopal-Ujjain passenger train. The train explosion on March 7, 2017, had left 10 people injured.
The breakthrough in the ISIS-backed criminal conspiracy case came when ATS Kanpur arrested the main accused, identified as Md Faisal, r/o Kanpur Nagar, UP, for his involvement in the MP train explosion.
His interrogation led to the arrest of two of his associates, Gauss Mohammad Khan alias Karan Khatri and Azhar Khan alias Azhar Khalifa, on March 9.
After taking over the investigation, the NIA arrested five more accused in the case. They were identified as Atif Muzaffar, Mohammad Danish, Asif Iqbal alias Rocky and Mohammad Atif alias Atif Iraqi, all hailing from Kanpur Nagar, and Sayed Meer Hussain of Kannouj, UP.
A chargesheet was filed by the NIA against all eight arrested accused on August 31, 2017.
According to an NIA spokesperson, investigations in the case had clearly shown that the accused were members of ISIS and had sworn ‘bayat’ (allegiance) to the Islamic State and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Atif Muzaffar was reportedly the group’s Emir (leader) and was influenced by the propaganda of Dr Zakir Naik.
He was found to be a frequent visitor of IS-related websites, from where he was downloading content and videos, and sharing it with others in his group. All eight had come together to propagate ISIS ideology and promote its activities in India.
In pursuit of this objective, Mohammad Faisal, Gauss Mohammad Khan, Atif Muzaffar, Md Danish, Md Saifulla had explored land routes. They had visited several key cities across the country, including Kolkata, Sundarbans, Srinagar, Amritsar, Wagha Border, Badmer, Jaisalmer, Mumbai, and Kozhikode, for undertaking ‘hijrah’ (migration).
Gauss Mohammad Khan and Atif Muzaffar had reportedly explored a route to cross over to Bangladesh via Sundarbans, as per the investigation. Faisal, Atif and Saifulla had also travelled to Kashmir in March 2016 to contact terrorist groups that could help them to cross over to Pakistan, from where they could migrate to ISIS-controlled territories in Syria.
Another accused, Saifulla, was killed during exchange of fire with ATS UP on March 7, 2017, in Haji Colony. The police had seized several weapons and incriminating documents from the group’s hideout in Haji Colony.
These seizures included a huge cache of arms, ammunitions, electronic gadgets and other materials required to fabricate IEDs, and documents, including an ISIS flag, eight pistols, four knives, 630 rounds live cartridges of 7.65mm (32 bore), 62 rounds fired cartridges of 7.65mm, five gold coins and cash worth Rs 62,055, foreign currencies, cheques, passports, five Mobile phones, two walkie-talkie sets, two compasses, clock timer, nine trigger switches, three T-shaped cast iron pieces, steel balls, SIM cards and a train time table.
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