NIA court sentences two men to death for murdering retired school principal in UP

Atif Muzaffar and Faisal Khan, both residents of Kanpur Nagar, have been sentenced to death in a separate case registered against them in March 2017 for being members of the ISIS.

A special NIA court in Uttar Pradesh has sentenced two men to death for killing a retired school principal in furtherance of a conspiracy hatched by the proscribed terror group ISIS, an official said on Friday.

Atif Muzaffar and Faisal Khan, both residents of Kanpur Nagar, have been sentenced to death in a separate case registered against them in March 2017 for being members of the global terror group.

A spokesperson of the federal agency on Friday said the Special NIA Court, Lucknow, pronounced the death sentence of the duo for murdering retired school principal Ramesh Babu Shukla on October 24, 2016.

"Muzaffar and Khan have been sentenced to death under three separate charges, while concurrently being awarded life sentence and simple imprisonment under various other criminal offences," the official said, adding they were also slapped with fine.

The NIA court had on September 4 held the duo guilty of killing Shukla near Pyondi village in Kanpur. One of the accused in the case, Mohammad Saifulla, died in an exchange of fire with the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad on the night of March 7, 2017.

The federal agency had on July 12, 2018, filed a charge sheet against the two accused, revealing that they were deeply radicalised by the ideology of ISIS and wanted to eliminate all those whom they believed to be disbelievers.

"The two men had conspired to further the ideology of ISIS by carrying out terrorist acts in India and had planned to target non-Muslims. In furtherance of their criminal conspiracy, they murdered Shukla to strike terror among the masses," the spokesperson said.

The case was initially registered on October 24, 2016, and was re-registered by the NIA on November 18 next year.

"Investigations had established that the accused were members of ISIS and had sworn 'bayat' (allegiance) to it and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Muzaffar was the group's 'Amir' (leader) and was influenced by the propaganda of (Islamic preacher) Dr Zakir Naik."

"He was found to be accessing ISIS-related websites frequently, from where he was downloading content and videos, and sharing those with the others in his group," the spokesperson said.

The official said investigations revealed that the accused had prepared and tested some improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and had unsuccessfully tried to plant them at various locations in Uttar Pradesh.

"A notebook seized from their Haji Colony (Lucknow) hideout was found to contain handwritten notes about potential targets and details about bomb-making."

"Investigations had also led to the discovery of several photographs of the accused making IEDs and even with weapons, ammunition and the ISIS flag," the spokesperson said, adding the group had reportedly collected illegal weapons and explosives from various places.