Tamil Nadu: NIA raids 14 locations across state in connection with terror gang 

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted searches at the residences of 14 men who were deported to India from the UAE and were arrested on July 15th for owing allegiance to the proscribed terrorist organizations ISIS/ Daesh, Al-Qaeda and Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), while being within and beyond India. 

They had allegedly conspired and made preparations to wage war against the Indian government by forming the terrorist gang Ansarulla.

The United Arab Emirates had kept the men in jail for six months before deporting them to India last week. They were arrested from Delhi airport and brought to Tamil Nadu where a special court on Friday allowed the police to keep the men in their custody till July 26.

Following the arrests and interrogation of the 14 members, the agency also arrested two more members from Nagapattinam, taking the overall arrests to 16.

Searches were conducted at five locations in Ramanathapuram district, two locations in Theni district and one location each in Chennai city, Tirunelveli city, Madurai city, Thanjavur district, Perambalur district, Nagapattinam district and Thiruvarur district.

The NIA conducted searches at the residences of 14 arrested accused persons in this case, namely Mohamed Ibrahim (A-4), Mohamed Sheik Maitheen (A-5), Meeran Ghani (A-6), Gulam Nabi Asath (A-7), Ahamed Azarudhen (A-8), Toufiq Ahmed (A-9), Mohamed Ibrahim (A-10), Mohammed Afzar (A-11), Rafi Ahamed (A-12), Munthasir (A-13), Umar Barook (A-14), Mohideen Seeni Shahul Hameed (A-15), Faizal Sharief (A-16) and Farook (A-17).

During the searches, a laptop, 7 mobiles, 5 SIM cards, 3 memory cards, a hard disk drive, 2 pen drives, an internet dongle, 9 CDs/ DVDs and about 50 documents have been seized. The seized materials will be submitted before the Honorable Special Court for NIA cases, Chennai and the digital devices will be subjected to cyber forensic examination.

A press release from the agency said, “The accused persons and their associates had collected funds and made preparations to carry out terrorist attacks in India with the intention of establishing Islamic rule in India. Accused persons have been actively recruiting individuals to strike terror in India and have also been disseminating videos and other jihadi propaganda material exhorting their supporters to conduct terrorist attacks through various methods including the use of explosives, poison, knives and vehicles, as means of attack. NIA has arrested 16 accused persons in this case.”

Cases have been registered under sections 120B, 121A and 122 of the IPC, besides sections 17, 18, 18-B, 38 and 39 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, added the NIA release.