Mumbai: The special NIA court on Wednesday took cognisance of the fifth supplementary chargesheet against alleged ISIS recruit Areeb Majeed, invoking Section 17 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, which provides punishment for raising funds for terrorist acts.
“It is axiomatic that, as further investigation has been kept open, new material relating to the offences alleged against the accused may come to the notice of the investigating agency. In that case, the prosecution and the investigating agency cannot be precluded from filing the same on record,” the court said.
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The NIA filed the supplementary chargesheet in April, alleging that Kalyan resident Majeed and co-accused Fahad Shaikh, Saheem Tanki and Aman Tandel were influenced by ISIS ideology.
According to the agency, the four decided in May 2014 to travel to Iraq through a “Jiharat Package”, for which they paid `2,37,500. During the trip, they visited the shrine of Abdul Qadir Jilani and allegedly met Afghan national Rehman Daulati and Iraqi national Abu Fatima through contacts in Iraq.
Fatima allegedly facilitated their entry into an ISIS camp and later directed that they be taken to the Jhazira camp.
Majeed opposed the NIA’s plea to accept the chargesheet as evidence, contending that no prima facie case under Section 17 existed. He argued that there was no evidence showing which terrorist act the funds were used for or how they were utilised.
He also claimed the agency was presenting “new” evidence despite having access to the material when it filed its first chargesheet in 2016.
Rejecting the objection, the court said Majeed’s fear of being charged under Section 17 was “hypothetical” at this stage. It added that the defence would have an opportunity to challenge the evidence’s “veracity, admissibility, acceptability” and rebut it within the legal framework.
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