Chennai engineer convicted in ISIS conspiracy case

A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Delhi has sentenced the accused Mohamed Naser to rigorous imprisonment for seven years and fine Rs 40,000 in the ISIS conspiracy case.

The case which was registered in 2015, pertains to a criminal conspiracy hatched by ISIS to establish its base in India by recruiting Muslim youth for ISIS through different social media platforms, the NIA stated.

'After completion of the investigation and subsequent trial, NIA Special Court has convicted accused Mohamed Naser of the various offences committed by him and sentenced him with rigorous imprisonment (RI) for seven years and fine Rs. 40,000/- on 16.12.2020,' NIA said in a press release.

The agency said that after completion of the investigation, NIA had filed charge-sheets against 16 accused including Mohd. Naser on June 3.

'In this case, 15 (fifteen) accused persons have already been convicted up to 10 years RI by NIA Special Court on 16.10.2020 for the conspiracy hatched by ISIS handlers based in Syria and subsequent formation of group namely 'Junood-ul-Khilafa-fil-Hind' owing to its allegiance to ISIS,' the agency said.

Mohamed Naser, who is a BTech (IT) and Certified Ethical Hacker from Chennai, was working as a Web Developer and Graphic Designer in Dubai in 2014.

He had got radicalised and motivated to join ISIS through the lectures delivered on YouTube by Islamic scholars namely Anjem Choudary and Abu Barra.

Convict Mohamed Naser was fully convinced that ISIS was following the true edicts of Islam and is struggling to create a Caliphate, which will be governed on the basis of Sharia.

'Hence, he had made frantic efforts to find persons who could facilitate his travel to Syria/Libya for joining ISIS. On persistent efforts, he came across some online handlers and left Dubai to join ISIS/ISIL for Libya via Sudan.

'But, he was interdicted by the Sudanese authorities and deported to India on 10.12.2015,' the NIA said.