india

Updated: Jul 15, 2019 02:45 IST

A day after conducting raids at four different locations in Chennai and Nagapattinam districts of Tamil Nadu, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday arrested two men hailing from Nagapattinam district “for conspiring to form a terror group in Tamil Nadu and wage a war to establish Islamic rule in India.”

According to the NIA, the accused are Hassan Ali (28), a native of Manjakkollai and 32-year-old Harish Mohamed, a resident of Sikkal village in Nagapattinam district.

“Based on the incriminating facts revealed during the searches and subsequent investigation, accused Hassan Ali, aged 28, and Harish Mohamed, aged 32, residents of Nagapattinam district, Tamil Nadu were arrested. The arrested men will be produced before the NIA’s Special Court in Poonamallee, Chennai on Sunday,” the NIA said in a statement released to the media on Sunday afternoon.

Subsequently, when the NIA produced the accused by 4 pm on Sunday, the NIA special court remanded them to the agency’s custody till July 24 for further investigations.

The arrests came after 14 NIA officials from the New Delhi and Cochin branches of the agency conducted raids in Mannady and Veppery in Chennai as well as Manjakkollai and Sikkal villages in Nagapattinam on Saturday.

“While seven NIA officers headed by NIA SP searched Wahadedh Islami Hind’s office in Mannady and its state president Syed Mohamed Bukhari’s house in Veppery, another team headed by AP Shoukath Ali, DSP of NIA from Kerala raided the houses of Hassan Ali in Manjakkollai and Harish Mohamed in Sikkal, Nagapattinam,” NIA sources said.

Before conducting the search operations, the NIA had already filed cases under several Sections of IPC and UA(P) Act against Syed Bukhari, Hassan Ali and Harish Mohamed.

“We have received credible information and evidence that the three accused and some others while being within and beyond India, had conspired and conducted preparations to wage war against the union government by forming a terrorist gang, Ansarulla. The accused and their aides have collected funds from foreign countries to wage war in India to set up Islamic rule here,” the NIA noted.

They have been booked under sections 120B -- Punishment of criminal conspiracy, 121A -- Conspiracy to commit offences punishable by section 121. Also, cases have been registered against the accused under sections 17, 18, 18-B, 38 and 39 of the UA (P) Act. The cases were filed on July 9.

The NIA has also revealed that electronic items, documents and other evidence have been retrieved from the houses of Hassan Ali and Harish Mohamed.

“During Saturday’s raid, we have retrieved nine mobiles, 15 SIM cards, seven memory cards, three laptops, five hard discs, six pen drives, two tablets and three CDs/ DVDs. Also, the NIA has seized documents including magazines, banners, notices, posters and books,” NIA said in a statement.

Sources with the NIA said that based on the information obtained from the accused, they will conduct further search operations at other places over the next few days.