The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday filed its first Supplementary Chargesheet, naming four more accused and adding charges against one, in the Pune ISIS arms and explosives seizure case.
With this, a total of 11 accused have been charge-sheeted by the NIA in the July 2023 case relating to seizure of arms, explosives, chemicals and ISIS related literature.
The four accused charge-sheeted today in the case RC-05/2023/NIA/Mum have been identified as Md. Shahnawaz Alam, Rizwan Ali, Abdullah Shaikh, Talha Liyakat Khan. Additional charges have been filed against Shamil Nachan, who was among the seven accused charge-sheeted earlier by the anti-terror agency.
Md. Shahnawaz Alam, who had escaped from detention after being apprehended during a bike theft in Kothrud Area of Pune, was arrested by the NIA on 2nd November 2023 for his association with the arrested and absconding accused in the ISIS case. He was taken into custody and his DNA matching was carried out with the DNA samples taken from the clothes seized earlier by the agency.
All the accused were members of the proscribed terrorist organisation, ISIS, and were involved in the plans to unleash terror in and around Pune in Maharashtra, as part of a larger conspiracy to promote the terror activities of the outfit, NIA investigations had revealed. It was also found that the accused persons were in touch with their foreign based handler via secret communication apps. They were also raising terror funds by carrying out armed robberies, thefts and were also receiving money from their handlers for carrying out their nefarious designs .
Investigations also showed that these men had undergone IED fabrication training at Kondhwa in Pune and had even conducted a controlled blast. They had recced the areas of Western Ghats for potential hideouts, besides checking out important places for carrying out terror attacks in various metro cities across Maharashtra and Gujarat. The accused had even engaged in firing practice while preparing themselves for terrorist strikes, as per NIA findings.
During investigations, NIA had recovered handwritten notes taken by the accused at the time of their IED fabrication training. A drone, clothes and a knife used during the ‘bayath’ (pledge), taken in the name of the Khalifa of ISIS, were also recovered.
Besides Shamil Nachan, the others named in the original chargesheet were Md. Imran, Md. Yunus Saki, Kadir Dastgir Pathan, Seemab Quazi , Zulfikar Ali Barodawala and Akeef Nachan. NIA investigations in the case are continuing.