ISIS-IRF case: Rizwan Khan gets bail as NIA fails to submit charge sheet

At the time of Rizwan’s arrest, the central agency had alleged that he was responsible for conversation of several people to Islam, including youth from Kerala who have alleged left to join the ISIS...

The special NIA court granted bail to Rizwan Khan, one of three accused booked in connection for allegedly influencing a city-based Muslim man to join terror outfit ISIS.

Khan is the second accused in the case, after Mohammad Haneef, to be released on bail after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) failed to file a chargesheet against him. (representation pic/AP)

Khan is the second accused in the case, after Mohammad Haneef, to be released on bail after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) failed to file a charge sheet against him.

Mohammad Haneef, a maulavi from Kerala, Arshi Qureshi, guest relations officer at Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) and Rizwan Khan were arrested following complaint of city businessman Abdul Khan. Abdul had alleged that Haneef, Arshi and Rizwan were responsible for radicalising his son Ashfaque to join the ISIS along with at least 21 other Muslim youth from Kerala.

While the NIA filed a charge sheet against Arshi Qureshi last month, it is yet to gather enough evidence to file charge sheet against Haneef and Rizwan. As there was no charge sheet against Haneef, he was granted bail in February after completion of 180 days of his arrest. Soon after the deadline to file chargesheet against Rizwan ended last week, his lawyer Tahwar Khan Pathan immediately field a bail application. The court, after hearing the plea, granted bail to Rizawn on Saturday.

At the time of Rizwan’s arrest, the central agency had alleged that he was responsible for conversation of several people to Islam, including youth from Kerala who have alleged left to join the ISIS. The prosecuting agency, during investigation, said it recovered hundreds of documents related to religion conversation from Rizwan’s residence.

Around 123 documents related to records of the court and copies of affidavits of conversation are now part of the charge sheet filed by the agency against Arshi. However, the agency said apart from this they have no evidence of Rizwan’s role in radicalising youth.