Court allows bail plea of Kalyan man accused of ISIS links

A special court on Tuesday allowed the bail plea of Kalyan resident Areeb Majeed, arrested for allegedly traveling to Syria to join the terrorist organisation ISIS in 2014. He would not be released immediately as judge R R Bhosale stayed the bail order till March 26 as the National Investigating Agency (NIA) said it wanted to file an appeal against the order.

Majeed was arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in 2014 upon his return from Syria. He had moved the Bombay High Court after the special NIA court denied him bail on several occasions. The high court then asked him to file a fresh plea before the lower court. Majeed sought bail from the special court on the ground that he was in jail for over six years as an under-trial prisoner.

Majeed, who hails from Kalyan in neighbouring Thane district, returned to Mumbai from Turkey on November 28, 2014, following which he was arrested under the UAPA and section 125 (waging war against a country which has friendly ties with India) of the Indian Penal Code. According to the investigating agency, he and three other engineering students from Kalyan flew to Baghdad in 2014, as part of a group of 22 pilgrims visiting Iraq, but after reaching there the group of four joined the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).