NIA court convicts 3 accused from Kerala in Valapattanam ISIS case; verdict on July 15

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Kochi on July 12 found three people guilty of attempting to join Islamic State (ISIS) between the time period of 2016-2017. As per reports, the court is set to announce the sentence on Friday, July 15. The case was initially registered at Valapattanam police station, Kerala and was taken over for investigation by NIA on December 16, 2017. After thorough investigation, a chargesheet was filed by NIA in 2018 against all the accused. 

In an official statement, the NIA informed, "NIA Special Court, Ernakulam convicted three persons in NIA case no. RC-02/2017/NIA/KOC for providing support to ISIS/ Daish. Those convicted were members of the proscribed terrorist organization and were attempting to travel out of India to join ISIS/Daish in Syria to fight for their cause."

The NIA court found Midilaj, Abdul Razak, and Hamsa guilty of offences related to membership in a terrorist organisation, giving support to a terrorist organisation, criminal conspiracy, and waging war against Asiatic power under Sections 38, 38 of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), Sections 120B and 125 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) respectively. The court could not find the accused person guilty of funding the terrorist organisation under Section 40 of UAPA.

NIA Arrests ISIS Operative In Karnataka

This comes six months after the NIA had arrested an ISIS operative in connection with an investigation in January this year. The NIA in co-operation with the Karnataka Police had arrested Mundadiguttu Sadananda Marla Deepthi Marlah for her suspected links with ISIS. The arrested operative is the wife of Anas Abdul Rahiman who is a resident of Mangaluru.

In August 2021, the anti-terror agency in co-operation with the local police had conducted a raid. However, Marlah was not arrested due to lack of evidence and she was also a lactating mother at the time. However, after collecting enough evidence, it was learnt that she was involved in the recruitment of the terrorist group. 

Image: PTI