The National Investigation Agency has filed a chargesheet against two accused in the Shivamogga Islamic State (IS) conspiracy case in connection with the conspiracy hatched to further the activities of the Islamic State by carrying out acts of arson sabotage and violence in Karnataka. NIA re-registered the case in September 2022 and took over the investigations of the case registered by Karnataka Police after the stabbing of one Prem Singh at Shivamogga (Karnataka) on August 15, 2022 by accused Zabiulla and others.
NIA team investigating Shivmoga case
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Maaz Muneer Ahmed (23) and Syed Yasin (22) of Shivamogga have been charged under sections 120B, 121A and 122 of IPC, 1860, sections 18, 18B, 20 & 38 of UA (P) Act, 1967 and sections 4 (i) & 5 of ES Act, 1908 and section 2 of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971.
Both Maaz and Syed are B. Tech graduates and were radicalised and motivated by an online foreign-based handler to target public and private properties, including warehouses, liquor outlets, hardware shops, vehicles and properties belonging to citizens belonging to a particular community. They committed over 25 incidents of arson and sabotage, the chargesheet said.
On how they prepared for the rampage, the chargesheet said Maaz and Syed Yasin both went to Agumbe and Varahi river backwaters forest area of Shivamogga district for trekking and recce for hideouts. They procured explosives and prepared to fabricate an IED. Syed Yasin conducted a trial explosion of one of the IEDs at theVarahi river bank in Shivamogga. He also burnt an Indian National Flag and recorded a video to establish his anti-India credentials.
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These IS terror operatives were being paid in cryptocurrencies by their online handler by fund transfers from abroad, the NIA said. Investigations have revealed that Maaz received Crypto equivalent to around ₹1.5 lakh from the online handler into accounts of his friends, whereas Syed Yasin received ₹62 K into the account of a friend.
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These IS terror operatives were being paid in cryptocurrencies by their online handler by fund transfers from abroad, the NIA said. Investigations have revealed that Maaz received Crypto equivalent to around ₹1.5 lakh from the online handler into accounts of his friends, whereas Syed Yasin received ₹62 K into the account of a friend.
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As part of the larger IS conspiracy, accused Mohamed Shariq had planned to carry out IED blast at Kadri Temple, Mangaluru on November 19, 2022. However, the IED had exploded prematurely due to atimer malfunction, when Shariq was en route to the target location averting a potential disaster.
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.
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Home/India News/NIA chargesheet on Shivamogga IS conspiracy: 2 B.tech graduates paid in crypto
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