NIA charge sheets one more in Shivamogga IS conspiracy case

The case is related to writing of graffiti in Mangaluru in support of proscribed terror outfits including IS, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Taliban.

Mangaluru: National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a charge sheet against one more accused while filing additional charges against two accused in Shivamogga IS (Islamic State) conspiracy case, related to writing of graffiti in Mangaluru in support of proscribed terror outfits including IS, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Taliban.

In its secondary supplement charge sheet filed in the case, NIA has charged Arafat Ali and filed additional charges against two others — Mohammed Shariq and Maaz Muneer Ahmed— in the case registered in 2022. According to NIA, Arafat Ali, who was arrested at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi on his return from Kenya on September 14, 2023, had allegedly radicalised and instigated the two youth into 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. 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 terror and terror outfits at two places in Mangaluru.

It was further revealed that Ali, along with his associates and online handler, was part of a larger conspiracy to further the terror activities of IS/ISIS. Arafat Ali had paid the graffiti writers with funds received from his online handler in form of cryptocurrencies, the press release stated. NIA had earlier filed one main and one supplementary charge sheet against nine accused, including Mohammed Shariq and Maaz Muneer Ahmed.

Further investigations in the case is in progress, the press release stated.