NIA raids 17 sites across 7 states in Bengaluru prison radicalisation case

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has launched multiple raids across seven states in connection with a case related to the radicalisation of prisoners by a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist in Karnataka, say reports.

The raids were being conducted on Tuesday (March 5) at 17 places across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and five other states but further details were awaited, an official told news agency PTI.

Whether NIA’s raids have any connection with the blast at Bengaluru’s Rameshwaram Café is not yet known, but reports say it is highly possible they will look into the suspected links. The agency took over the probe into the cafe blast on Monday.

NIA chargesheet

In January, the NIA charge-sheeted eight people in the case. The charge-sheeted accused included T Naseer of Kerala’s Kannur, who is serving life sentence in the central prison in Bengaluru since 2013, and Junaid Ahmed alias “JD” and Salman Khan, who are suspected to have fled abroad. In all, six persons have been arrested in the case so far.

The case was originally registered by the Bengaluru City Police on July 18 last year following the seizure of arms and ammunition, including seven pistols, four hand grenades, one magazine, and 45 live rounds, and four walkie-talkies from seven of the accused persons. The seizure was made when the seven men were in the house of one of the accused.

What happened in prison?

According to the NIA, which took over the case in October last year, the investigations revealed that Naseer, who was involved in several blast cases, had come in contact with the other accused — Mohammed Umar, Mohammed Faisal Rabbani, Tanveer Ahmed, Mohammed Farooq, and Junaid Ahmed — while serving a life sentence in the Central Prison in Bengaluru during 2017.

Naseer had managed to get all of them shifted to his barrack after a careful assessment of their potential with a view to radicalise and recruit them into the proscribed terror group, LeT. Naseer had radicalized and recruited all of them for committing violent terror acts, the NIA said last year.

‘Fidayeen’ attack plans

The agency had said he first managed to radicalise and recruit Ahmed and Khan to further the activities of the LeT. Thereafter, he conspired with Ahmed to radicalise and recruit the other accused, the official said. He also conspired with Khan to deliver arms, ammunition, hand grenades, and walkie talkies to the others as part of a plot to carry out a “fidayeen” (suicide) attack and help Naseer escape from police custody on the way to court, the official said.

Ahmed also instructed his co-accused to steal used police caps for the attack and to commit arson on government buses as a practice run. The plot was foiled with the seizure of the arms in July last year.

(With agency inputs)