A Bengaluru youth, Abid Khan, has been held guilty of joining a group that was working towards promoting the Islamic State (ISIS) ideology.
A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Shimla held Abid Khan guilty under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, and the judgement and quantum of punishment will be declared on 21 July, India Today reported.
According to the NIA, Abid Khan was arrested after he joined Junood-Ul-Khilafa-Fil-Hind, an organisation which works to spread the ideology of the ISIS.
Junood-Ul-Khilafa is a newly formed international terrorist organisation which aims to establish a caliphate and is proscribed.
Abid Khan converted to Christianity in 2016 and had obtained a passport in March 2016. He went to Colombo, Sri Lanka, and stayed there for over a month.
Upon his return, Khan stayed at a church in Kullu, Himachal Pradesh
During this period, he maintained contact with his handlers through social media platforms.
The NIA filed a charge sheet against him in June 2017 under sections 120B (Punishment for criminal conspiracy) and 201 (Disappearance of evidence of offence and giving false information to investigating officer) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC); sections 18 (Conspire or attempting to commit, or advocate, abet, advise or incite a terrorist act) 18B (Punishment for recruiting of any person or persons for terrorist act), 20 (Punishment for being member of terrorist gang or organisation), 38 and 39 (Punishment for support given to a terrorist organisation) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act; and, sections 4 and 5 of the Explosive Substances Act.
The FIR in the case was initially registered under sections 18 and 20 of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, and section 419 of the IPC at police station Banjar, Kullu. The accused was subsequently arrested.
The NIA headquarters in New Delhi later registered a fresh FIR as per the orders of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the central government.
After the completion of investigation on 12 June, the NIA had filed a charge sheet against Abid Khan in the special NIA Court in Shimla under the remaining sections.
(This article was originally published on The News Minute. It has been republished with permission.)
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