Bengaluru: The Special NIA Court in Bengaluru on Wednesday handed over the custody of three arrested accused persons in a prison radicalisation case to the custody of the National Investigation Agency for six days.
The accused Anees Fathima, Chan Pasha and Dr Nagaraj S. were produced before the court today by a team headed by Dy SP Susheela. The judge passed the order handing over the custody of the accused to the NIA till July 14.
The NIA on Tuesday had arrested these three persons, including a prison psychiatrist and a City Armed Reserve (CAT) policeman, following extensive searches in two districts of Karnataka in the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror group’s prison radicalisation case of 2023.
Anees Fathima is named as the tenth accused, Chan Pasha is accused number 11 and accused Dr Nagaraj S. is named as accused number 12.
According to NIA, the accused number 10, Anees Fathima, a resident of Bhuvaneshwari Nagar, Sultanpalya, R.T. Nagar, Bengaluru, is the mother of absconding accused number 2- Junaid Ahmed. She is involved in facilitating money transactions with other accused.
Eleventh accused Chan Pasha, a Reserve Police Sub-Inspector, City Armed Reserve (North) Bengaluru, while discharging his duties, provided police escort details of Accused No.1- T. Naseer to other co-accused and in return received illegal gratification.
Accused number 12, Dr. Nagaraj, a psychiatrist at Central Prison, Parappana Agrahara, Bengaluru, helped other accused in smuggling mobile phones to accused number one, T. Naseer, which in turn was used by other suspects to aid activities of LeT.
The NIA in its official statement said, “Searches were conducted at five locations in Bengaluru and Kolar districts of the state, leading to the arrest of Dr Nagaraj, Psychiatrist, Central Prison, Parappana Agrahara, Bengaluru, Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) ASI Chan Pasha, and Anees Fathima, mother of an absconding accused.”
During the searches, various digital devices, cash, gold and incriminating documents were seized from the houses of the arrested accused and other suspects, the NIA stated.
The case relates to the recovery of arms, ammunition, explosives and digital devices, including two walkie-talkies, from habitual offenders who were conspiring to unleash terror activities in Bengaluru city with the aim of furthering the nefarious agenda of the proscribed terrorist organisation, LeT, the statement said.
As part of the conspiracy, Dr Nagaraj was smuggling mobile phones for use by prison inmates, including Tadiyandaveed Naseer aka T. Naseer, a life-time convict lodged in terror cases in Central Prison, Bengaluru.
Nagaraj was supported by one Pavithra in this activity, the NIA stated.
Besides houses of Nagaraj and Pavithra, NIA also searched the house of Anees Fathima, mother of absconder Junaid Ahmed, and involved in passing instructions from Naseer to her son for raising funds and handing over the same to Naseer in prison, the NIA said.
As per NIA investigations, ASI Chan Pasha had, in 2022, been involved in passing information related to Naseer’s escort from prison to various courts in exchange for money, the NIA stated.
NIA has already charge-sheeted nine accused, including absconder Junaid Ahmed, under various sections of IPC and UA(P) Act, Arms Act and Explosive Substances Act in the case. Investigations and efforts to track the absconder are continuing, the statement said.
(IANS)
