Malwani ISIS module: Rizwan Ahmed seeks bail, cites order in Areeb Majeed’s case

Rizwan Ahmed, who has been accused of radicalising local youth from Malwani to join militant group Islamic State (ISIS), has applied for bail in the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court citing the Bombay high court’s order granting bail to Areeb Majeed, a purported ISIS recruit from Kalyan.

Rizwan Ahmed, who has been accused of radicalising local youth from Malwani to join militant group Islamic State (ISIS), has applied for bail in the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court citing the Bombay high court’s order granting bail to Areeb Majeed, a purported ISIS recruit from Kalyan.

For representational purposes only. (HT FILE)

Ahmed and another accused, Mohsin Ibrahim Sayyed, are facing trial for instigating youths — Ayaz Sultan, Mohsin, Abdul Bashir, Noor Mohammad — from Malwani to join ISIS in 2015. The probing agencies claimed Ahmed was allegedly the second-in-command of the ISIS wing in India.

Ahmed has, in his bail plea, relied on the recent HC judgment wherein alleged ISIS recruit Areeb Majeed was granted bail on the grounds of delay in trial.

He also pleaded, “The applicant is a 23-year-old boy. The accusation that he is the head of an international terrorist organisation sounds unbelievable. It is not the story of the prosecution that the act of the applicant has caused any death. Unlike Areeb, it is not even the case of the prosecution that the applicant had left India or intended to leave India to join a proscribed terrorist organisation. The case of the prosecution is that the applicant along with co-accused and wanted accused was instigating youths to join ISIS. The prosecution until now has been unable to bring anything material on record to suggest such allegation.”

Further he has claimed that he was arrested on January 21, 2016. The first witness was examined on October 04, 2018. After more than two-and-a-half years, only 23 witnesses have been examined.

According to the prosecution, there are 228 witnesses, and more than 200 witnesses are yet to be examined.

Refuting prosecution’s allegations, Ahmed claimed that he was a child in 2013, when the purported radicalisation of the accused Ayaz Mohamed began. He claimed that it was Ayaz who had great influence on the youth in Malwani area and was responsible for radicalising to youths there.

He has also claimed that he is suffering from acute case of tuberculosis and has developed a tumour/lump in his throat.

As per the prosecution case, Ahmed and Mohsin instigated and radicalised youth from Malwani area of Malad to join the ISIS with the help of two wanted accused — Yusuf Al Hindi alias Shafi Armar and Ayaz Sultan, both residents of Malwani who escaped to Syria to join ISIS.

It is alleged that Sayyed, along with Noor Mohammad, a carpenter, and Wajid Shaikh, son of a vegetable shop owner, had gone missing on December 15, 2015. The agency claimed the three had decided to join ISIS after 23-year-old Sultan went missing on October 30, 2015. The Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad (ATS) had claimed that Sultan had escaped to Afghanistan, and then to Syria.