On 9th December, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) carried out raids at 44 locations linked to terrorist organisation ISIS in Maharashtra and Karnataka. The investigating agency arrested 15 ISIS terrorists following the raids. During further investigation into the module, the agency found out that one of the terrorists worked as a government employee with Northern Railways.
As per a report by The Indian Express, he forged medical bills to fund the terror module. Following the 9th December raids, NIA got the lead for more terrorists identified as Shahnawaz Alam, Mohammad Rizwan Ashraf and Mohammad Arshad Warsi.
All three of them were arrested by the Special Cell of Delhi Police in October this year. In November, NIA took over the matter on the directions of the Home Ministry.
Investigation into the three ISIS terrorists and their associates led to the detection of a common pattern. The NIA found that funds were regularly transferred from a common source to their accounts.
Further investigation and questioning revealed that the terrorist who had been sending them money was living in Noida and working as a clerk in the Northern Railways financial department.
An unnamed source in the Intelligence told The Indian Express that the terrorists arrested by the police had radicalised the Railways employee. The clerk is on the run, and multiple agencies are trying to trace him.
Though the exact way that he used to siphon off the money from Railways would become clear after his arrest, it appears that he filed several forged medical bills and put the account numbers of ISIS terrorists for reimbursement.
The source told The Indian Express, “The Northern Railways was informed about this. They have filed a complaint with Delhi Police at Parliament Street Police Station, alleging internal fraud and seeking an FIR against the clerk. But they did not mention anything about his nexus with the alleged ISIS terrorists.”
As per a report by Live Hindustan, a First Information Report was registered against the clerk under the relevant sections in Parliament Street Police Station.
ISIS module busted in Maharashtra
On 9th December, NIA busted an ISIS module in the Thane district of Maharashtra and arrested 15 terrorists. The investigating agency identified Saquib Nachan as the mastermind behind the module. The module was allegedly planning to carry out terror activities across India.
In a statement, NIA said, “The investigations have revealed that the accused, all members of ISIS Maharashtra module, were operating from Padgha-Borivali, where they had hatched the conspiracy to spread terror and carry out acts of violence across India. Pursuing the path of violent jihad, Khilafat, ISIS, etc, the accused had aimed to disturb the peace and communal harmony of the country and wage a war against the Government of India.”
Notably, Nachan is not a new name for the security agencies. He has been booked in over a dozen terror-related cases. In two of the cases, he was convicted by the court. In 1997, the Supreme Court convicted him of planning terror attacks with Khalistani terror organisations in the early 1990s. Further, he was also booked in the 2002-03 Mumbai blasts. Later, in 2016, he was convicted by a Mumbai court and sent to prison for ten years. He was released in 2017 after serving the sentence. His son Shamil Nachan is also involved in terror activities and was arrested by NIA in the ISIS module case.
