The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a charge sheet in the ISIS recruitment conspiracy case in which it has named the kin of former Karnataka Congress MLA, late B M Idinabba along with 7 others.
According to reports, the chargesheet has been filed against eight accused, including Deepthi Marla and Ammar Abdul Rahiman. Marla’s husband Anas Abdul Rahiman is the son of B M Basha, whose father Idinabba was a former Congress MLA. Idinabba died in 2009. Ammar Rahiman is Anas’s brother.
Others chargesheeted in the case were identified as Mohd. Waqar Lone, Mizha Siddeeque, Shifa Haris, Obaid Hamid Matta, Madesh Shankar and Muzamil Hassan Bhat.
“Investigation has revealed that all eight accused charge-sheeted today are affiliated with ISIS and were involved in radicalising, recruiting, organising terror funds and grooming like-minded gullible Muslim youth through different secured social media platforms to perform Hijrat to ISIS-controlled territory for joining ISIS,” NIA said.
“During the investigation, it has been revealed that after the decline of ISIS Caliphate in Syria/Iraq, Deepthi Marla and Mohd. Ameen had visited Kashmir in January and March 2020 for Hijrah (religious migration) and for engaging in terrorist acts and supporting the activities of ISIS,” the NIA added.
NIA arrested Ex-Congress MLA’s family member from Karnataka for ISIS links
It may be recalled that on January 3, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) raided the residence of BM Basha, son of renowned Kannada writer and former Ullal MLA late B M Idinabba. The agency arrested Basha’s daughter-in-law, Mundadiguttu Sadananda Marla Deepthi Marlah alias Maryam into custody for alleged links to the terrorist organization ISIS. Basha resides at Mastikatte village near Mangaluru, Karnataka.
NIA stated that the arrests were made in connection to a case registered in March 2021.
NIA Deputy SP Krishna Kumar led the team and searched the house. Several documents were seized by the security agency. NIA secured her remand at a local court in Mangalore and took her to New Delhi for further questioning.
It is noteworthy that NIA had raided the same house in August and arrested Ammar, cousin of Anas Abdul Rahiman, for his alleged ISIS links. NIA had interrogated Mariam at that time but did not detain her. Reports suggest in the last five months, the security agency gathered enough evidence against her to initiate an arrest for suspected ISIS links.
So far, NIA has arrested 11 people for allegedly raising funds, radicalizing and motivating people to join the terrorist organization ISIS. Ammar’s niece Ajmala is believed to be one of 13 people from Kasaragod, Kerala, who had fled the country to join ISIS in 2016. As per the charge sheet filed by NIA in 2017, Ajmala and her husband Shifas KP left India in May 2016 and joined IS in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province. Around that time, a total of 21 people had fled the country from Kerala to join IS.
As per the suo motu case registered by NIA last year, Mohammed Ameen and his associates were running propaganda channels on social media platforms including Instagram, Hoop and Telegram to recruit people to ISIS.
