NEW DELHI, Apr 22:
Seven accused, including mastermind and Lashkar-e-Taiba member T Naseer, have been sentenced to seven-year rigorous imprisonment by a special National Investigation Agency court in the 2023 Bengaluru prisons radicalisation case, an official statement said on Wednesday.
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Apart from Naseer, the court has sentenced accused Syed Suhail Khan, Mohammed Umar, Zahid Tabrez, Syed Mudassir Pasha, Mohammed Faisal Rabbani and Salman Khan and imposed a fine of Rs 48,000, it said.
The accused had earlier pleaded guilty of the charges filed by the NIA in the case relating to a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) linked terror conspiracy hatched inside the Parapanna Agrahara Central Prisons, Bengaluru, by Naseer.
The conspiracy involved identification, recruitment, training, conversion and radicalisation of gullible youth lodged in prison to execute terror activities in India, the statement issued by the NIA said.
The case was initially registered by the Bengaluru Central Crime Branch (CCB) in July 2023 following the seizure of arms, ammunition and digital devices from habitual offenders.
The offenders had planned to carry out terror strikes in Bengaluru City in furtherance of the violent anti-India agenda of the proscribed LeT terror outfit, the probe agency said.
The case was taken over by NIA, which unveiled a larger conspiracy to facilitate the escape of Naseer, a life convict in several terror cases, while on way from the prison to court. Naseer was an under-trial prisoner in the 2008 Bengaluru serial blast cases at the time.
The NIA had chargesheeted 11 arrested accused and an absconder, identified as Junaid Ahmed, in the case.
Of these, accused alman Khan was arrested after he was successfully extradited from the Republic of Rwanda as a result of the coordinated efforts of NIA and the agencies concerned in Rwanda, it said, adding, efforts are on to track and arrest Junaid Ahmed. (PTI)
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