The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday conducted raids at 13 locations in Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur in its ongoing probe into a terror conspiracy case.
The case is linked to the Bhopal terror funding case involving the proscribed organization, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). The raids are still underway at the premises of the suspects involved in a terror conspiracy based on specific inputs, said a source privy to the development.
NIA’s multiple teams launched the raids early on Saturday in close coordination with the Madhya Pradesh Police.
The fresh raids were carried out just two days after the anti-terror agency on May 25 searched two locations in Uttar Pradesh in the Bhopal terror funding case involving JMB.
The raids then aimed to expose further links and conspiracies of the 10 already arrested accused and charge-sheeted in the case by NIA Court, Bhopal. Six of the arrested accused are Bangladeshi nationals and are active JMB cadres.
They had entered India illegally, without any valid documents, and had acquired false and forged Indian identity documents with the help of their sympathizers in India.
Wednesday’s searches at the premises of various suspects led to the seizure of several digital devices (mobile phones), SIM cards, Bank Passbooks and Identity documents.
The documents, currently under examination, relate to suspect transactions related to the transfer of funds by the accused.
NIA investigations have revealed that all the 10 arrested accused were involved in influencing, radicalizing and motivating vulnerable Indian Muslim youth to take up violent Jihad against the democratic system of governance in the country.
“They had been circulating incriminating Jihadi literature, inflammatory videos and statements (Bayans,) and endorsing, justifying and glorifying the terrorist acts of the various banned terrorist organisations, including JMB, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban,” said the NIA.
“They were conspiring to align with terrorist organisations to achieve their ultimate goal of establishing a Shariat-based Islamic rule in India through the pursuit of ‘violent Jihad’. They had grand plans of creating a pan-India network to pursue their objective and, along with their co-accused, had successfully established bases in various states, including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Tripura, West Bengal and Assam.”
The agency registered the case on April 5 last year under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Foreigners Act, of 1946.
It was originally registered on March 14 last year by the Special Task Force of Madhya Pradesh Police in the wake of the arrest of six active cadres of JMB from their rented house in Bhopal. A cache of Jihadi literature, digital devices, a printer, paper cutting machine, book binding material etc., was also seized from the house.
Given the ramifications of the case and developments for national security, the NIA had subsequently taken over the investigations and arrested four more accused.