NIA court allows transfer of ISIS accused from Mumbai jail

MUMBAI: A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Tuesday allowed Sharjeel Shaikh, alleged member of the Maharashtra-based module of banned terror outfit ISIS, to be transferred from the Arthur Road jail in Mumbai Central to any other jail, observing that jail authorities had no objection to his prayer

MUMBAI: A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Tuesday allowed Sharjeel Shaikh, alleged member of the Maharashtra-based module of banned terror outfit ISIS, to be transferred from the Arthur Road jail in Mumbai Central to any other jail, observing that jail authorities had no objection to his prayer. Special judge A K Lahoti, while pronouncing the order, directed jail authorities to send a proposal regarding the accused’s prayer to the competent authority.

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The accused Sharjeel Shaikh pleaded for a transfer on the grounds that conditions inside the Mumbai Central jail are inhuman and the barracks are overcrowded. The jail has a capacity of 999 prisoners, but it has more than 3,700 inmates, he submitted before the court. His lawyers further argued that he should be kept in a high security cell and not in normal prison. They also reminded the court that two alleged members of the outfit had already been transferred to the Taloja Central jail.

The NIA submitted that the prayer related to an administrative task which was looked after by the jail. Jail authorities told the court that though Shaikh had enough space, if all the accused were together, there were chances of them chalking out new terrorist activities.

“The reply filed by Mumbai Central Jail authority depicts that in their prison, the number of prisoners is more than the normal capacity. There is no data regarding the capacity of other jails to accommodate more prisoners at this juncture, as all the data is lying with the respective jail authority or supervisor. So, they should decide where to transfer the accused,” said the court.

The NIA had busted the Maharashtra-based ISIS module and arrested four persons including Shaikh in July 2023, following raids in Pune, Mumbai and Thane. NIA teams had seized several incriminating materials during the raids, such as electronic gadgets and documents related to ISIS. The seized material exposed strong and active linkages of the accused with ISIS and their efforts to motivate vulnerable youth to further the terror organisation’s anti-India agenda.

Preliminary investigation by the agency had established that the accused were raising and operating a sleeper cell in Maharashtra, and they had hatched a conspiracy to further the terrorist activities of ISIS, known by different names such as Islamic State (IS), Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL), Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Daesh, Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP), ISIS Wilayat Khorasan, Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham Khorasan (ISIS-K).