NIA gets six-day custody of three accused in prison radicalisation case
On Wednesday, the NIA special court in Bengaluru remanded Anees Fathima, mother of Junaid Ahmed, accused number 2 in the case who is currently on the run; Nagaraj, psychiatrist, Bengaluru Central Prison; and Chand Pasha, assistant sub-inspector, City Armed Reserve, North, in the custody of the central agency.
The arrests followed extensive raids at five locations in Bengaluru and Kolar districts by the NIA on Tuesday. The NIA suspects that Fathima acted as a contact person between her son Junaid and Tadiyandaveed Naseer, alias T. Naseer, a lifetime convict in terror cases, lodged in the central prison. Naseer is the accused number one in this case. The NIA claimed that Nagaraj smuggled mobile phones inside the prison for inmates, including Naseer. According to the NIA, Pasha used to pass on information about the escort of Naseer to various courts in Bengaluru in exchange for money, but it has not disclosed the recipients of the message.
The case came to light in 2023 after the Bengaluru Central Crime Branch (CCB) police arrested five people in northern Bengaluru. The five were said to be associates of Junaid, who had multiple criminal cases against him, including that of hatching a terror conspiracy to carry out 'explosions' in Bengaluru. The CCB had seized four grenades and eventually arrested one more person who had handed over the grenades near T. Begur to the arrested accused.
According to police sources, 12 people, including Junaid and the five accused, were arrested in 2017 by the R.T. Nagar police in connection with the murder of a businessman. According to the sources, when Junaid and his men were in judicial custody at the central prison, they came in contact with Naseer, a Lashkar-e-Taiba-linked convict, who is accused of having radicalised them. Junaid was again accused in a red sanders smuggling case in 2021; ever since, he has been absconding, according to the police.
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