Parbhani ISIS case: 7 years’ RI, Rs 5,000 fine for 1 terror accused

A terror accused in the Parbhani ISIS case was sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 5,000 by the NIA Special Court in Mumbai. The NIA special judge convicted accused Naserbin Abubakar Yafai of Gadiwan Mohalla, Parbhani, Maharashtra, under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Explosives Substances Act, for using online resources to contact members of the Islamic State/ ISIL/ ISIS to support jihad activities in India.

A Parbhani-based ISIS module was busted by Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorism Squad in August 2016, and there were four youths were from Parbhani and Hingoli - Mohammad Raisuddin Mohammad Siddique, Iqbal Ahmed Kabir Ahmed, Nasir Chaus and Shaheed Khan involved. Farooque, alias Shafi Armar, who is an erstwhile member of the Indian Mujahideen (IM) is still absconding. An IED was also recovered from Shaheed’s maternal home, which was meant for use in attacks.

The Maharashtra ATS had claimed the ISIS module was planning to carry out an attack on the Aurangabad ATS unit and Farooque had allegedly instructed Chaus to chat with him through various messenger apps, after which Chaus brought in others and formed a module to carry out attacks in Maharashtra.

The case was initially registered with the ATS of the Maharashtra police in August 2018 and later, was taken over by the NIA, which filed a charge sheet against the four accused. The trial of the remaining three accused in the case continues.

The Shiv Sena had, in the 2016 state assembly, raised the issue of 100 youth from Parbhani being missing and in touch with ISIS.