Orissa High Court rejects bail plea of convicted terror recruiter

Odisha CID’s special task force had filed a charge sheet against Rehman in August 2023 and the trial was pending before a sessions court in Salipur, Cuttack.

The Orissa high court on Tuesday rejected the bail plea of Mohd Abdur Rehman, an alleged al Qaeda operative, who faces charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act of indoctrinating young individuals and recruiting them for terror.

Police had claimed that Rehman ran an unregistered madrasa at Tangi, where he allegedly indoctrinated students into extremist ideology. (Orissa HIgh Court)

Rehman, a resident of Paschimkachha under Salepur in Cuttack district, was arrested by a joint team of Delhi Police and Odisha Police in December 2015 following inputs that linked him to the recruitment and radicalisation of youths for terrorist activities.

In February 2023, a Patiala House Court in Delhi convicted Rehman and three others, Mohd Asif, Zafar Masood, and Abdul Sami, under sections 18 (conspiracy for terror acts) and 18B (recruitment for terror acts) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Rehman was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for seven years and five months and has served this prison term.

He, however, remains in custody due to a second case filed by the Odisha police under the UAPA.

Police had claimed that he ran an unregistered madrasa at Tangi, where he allegedly indoctrinated students into extremist ideology.

Odisha CID’s special task force had filed a charge sheet against Rehman in August 2023 and the trial was pending before a sessions court in Salipur, Cuttack.

At the time of his arrest, the police claimed that Rehman had been delivering inflammatory speeches at religious gatherings in Odisha and Jharkhand and had travelled to Pakistan in 2015 and met top Lashkar-e-Taiba commanders.