NIA files chargesheet against another accused in Shivamogga ISIS conspiracy case

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a chargesheet against one more accused in the Shivamogga ISIS conspiracy case, related to writing of graffiti in Mangaluru in support of proscribed terrorist organisations, including ISIS and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), an official said on Friday.

In addition to the supplementary chargesheet against Arafath Ali, the federal anti-terror agency also filed charges against two others - Mohammed Shariq and Maaz Muneer Ahmed - in the case registered in 2022, the official said.

According to the NIA, Ali, who was arrested at the Indira Gandhi International airport in Delhi on his return from Kenya on September 14 last year, had allegedly radicalised and hired the other accused for writing the graffiti in January 2020.

"He had earlier fled to Dubai in anticipation of his arrest in another case (the Al-Hind module case) for his association with two absconding accused - Abdul Matheen Taha and Mussavir Hussain Shazeb," a spokesperson of the NIA said.

The official said that the investigations revealed that it was on instructions from Taha and Shazeb that Ali had indoctrinated Shariq, Ahmed and others to write graffiti in support of the ISIS, LeT and Taliban at two places in Mangaluru.

"It was further found that Ali, along with his associates and online handler, was part of a larger conspiracy to further the terror activities of IS/ISIS. He had paid the graffiti writers with funds received from his online handler in the form of cryptocurrencies," the spokesperson said.

The NIA had earlier filed one main and one supplementary chargesheets against nine accused, including Shariq and Ahmed.

Further investigations in the case are going on, the official said.