NEW DELHI, March 14: The National Investigation Agency has filed its first supplementary charge sheet naming four more accused in the Pune ISIS arms and explosives seizure case, an official statement issued on Thursday said.
With this, a total of 11 accused have been charge-sheeted by the NIA in the July 2023 case relating to the seizure of arms, explosives, chemicals and ISIS-related literature, it said.
The four accused have been identified as Md Shahnawaz Alam, Rizwan Ali, Abdullah Shaikh, Talha Liyakat Khan, the NIA said in the statement.
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The supplementary charge sheet was filed on Wednesday.
“Additional charges have been filed against Shamil Nachan, who was among the seven accused charge-sheeted earlier by the anti-terror agency,” it added.
Md Shahnawaz Alam, who had escaped from detention after being apprehended during a bike theft in Kothrud area of Pune, was arrested by the NIA on November 2, last year for his association with the arrested and absconding accused in the ISIS case.
“He was taken into custody and his DNA matching was carried out with the DNA samples taken from the clothes seized earlier by the agency,” the statement said.
All the accused were members of the proscribed terrorist organisation ISIS and were involved in the plans to unleash terror in and around Pune in Maharashtra as part of a larger conspiracy to promote the terror activities of the outfit, NIA investigations had revealed.
It was also found that the accused were in touch with their foreign-based handler via secret communication apps, it added.
They were also raising terror funds by carrying out armed robberies, and thefts and were also receiving money from their handlers for carrying out their nefarious designs, the statement said.
Investigations also showed that these men had undergone IED fabrication training at Kondhwa in Pune and had even conducted a controlled blast.
They had recced the areas of Western Ghats for potential hideouts, besides checking out important places for carrying out terror attacks in various metro cities across Maharashtra and Gujarat, the NIA said.
The accused had even engaged in firing practice while preparing themselves for terrorist strikes, as per the NIA findings.
During investigations, the NIA had recovered handwritten notes taken by the accused at the time of their IED fabrication training.
A drone, clothes and a knife used during the ‘bayath’ (pledge), taken in the name of the Khalifa of ISIS, were also recovered, the NIA said.
Besides Shamil Nachan, the others named in the original charge sheet were Md Imran, Md Yunus Saki, Kadir Dastgir Pathan, Seemab Quazi, Zulfikar Ali Barodawala and Akeef Nachan, it added. (PTI)
